LOCATION PANTERA                 TX

Established Series
Rev. JLR/ACT/LEL
10/2012

PANTERA SERIES

The Pantera series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately rapidly permeable soils formed in loamy gravelly alluvial materials. These soils are on nearly level to moderately sloping wide arroyos and drainageways. Slopes range from 0 to 8 percent. The mean annual precipitation is about 10 inches and the mean annual air temperature is about 68 degrees F.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Sandy-skeletal, mixed, hyperthermic Ustic Torrifluvents

TYPICAL PEDON: Pantera gravelly sandy loam, rangeland. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise noted.)

A--0 to 3 inches; brown (10YR 5/3) gravelly sandy loam, brown (10YR 4/3), moist; weak medium subangular blocky parting to weak fine subangular blocky and weak medium platy structure; loose, nonsticky and nonplastic; common very fine roots throughout; 20 percent discontinuous distinct white (10YR 8/1) carbonate coats on rock fragments; 32 percent subrounded igneous gravel; strongly effervescent; strongly alkaline; clear smooth boundary. (5 to 30 cm, 2 to 15 inches thick)

Ck1--3 to 11 inches; brown (10YR 5/3) gravelly loamy sand, brown (10YR 4/3), moist; single grain; loose, nonsticky and nonplastic; many very fine and few medium roots throughout; 25 percent discontinuous distinct white (10YR 8/1), carbonate coats on rock fragments; 30 percent subrounded igneous gravel fragments; strongly effervescent; strongly alkaline; clear smooth boundary.

Ck2--11 to 18 inches; brown (10YR 5/3) very gravelly loamy coarse sand, brown (10YR 4/3), moist; single grain; loose, nonsticky and nonplastic; common very fine and few medium roots throughout; 15 percent patchy distinct white (10YR 8/1) carbonate coats on rock fragments; 50 percent subrounded igneous gravel and 5 percent subangular igneous cobbles; strongly effervescent; strongly alkaline; clear wavy boundary.

C--18 to 80 inches; brown (10YR 5/3) stratified very gravelly coarse sand, brown (10YR 4/3), moist; single grain; loose, nonsticky and nonplastic; common fine and very fine roots throughout; 5 percent patchy faint white (10YR 8/1) carbonate coats on rock fragments; 50 percent subrounded igneous gravel; noneffervescent; strongly alkaline.

TYPE LOCATION: Presidio County, Texas; from junction of US Highway 67 and RM 170 on the north side of Presidio, 9.6 miles northwest on RM 170, 4.1 miles north-northeast on ranch trail, 50 feet west in rangeland; Arroyo Melado USGS 7.5 minute quadrangle; Latitude: 29 degrees, 42 minutes, 25.52 seconds N., Longitude: 104 degrees, 27 minutes, 5.35 seconds W. NAD83; UTM coordinates: 553058 m E, 3286455 m N, zone 13.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:

Soil moisture: intermittently moist in the soil moisture control section during July-September. Ustic aridic soil moisture regime.

Solum thickness: 6 to 15 inches over 40 to 80 inches or more of unconsolidated stratified, loamy, gravelly, or cobbly alluvial materials. The solum and regolith consists of thin to thick bedded layers of gravelly alluvium separated by bedding planes and which vary in content and size of coarse fragments.

Rock fragments: 35 to 80 percent; 25 to 65 percent gravel; 10 to 40 percent cobbles; 0 to 20 percent stones

Texture in the control section: loamy sand, sand, sandy loam

Clay content: 2 to 15 percent

In some pedons the coarse fragments in the A and C1 horizons have thin patchy coatings of calcium carbonate, with the carbonate content apparently uniform in these horizons.

A horizon
Hue: 7.5YR, 10YR
Value: 4 to 7, dry or moist
Chroma: 2 to 4, dry or moist
Texture: loamy sand, sandy loam, fine sandy loam, loam, sand, coarse sandy loam, loamy coarse sand

Ck and C horizons
Hue: 7.5YR, 10YR
Value: 4 to 7 dry, 3 or 5 moist
Chroma: 2 to 4, dry or moist
Texture: loamy sand, sandy loam, coarse sand, sand, loamy coarse sand, coarse sandy loam

Some pedons are underlain at 40 to 60 inches or more by various kinds of bedrock, clay, shale, lava, ash, or tuff.

COMPETING SERIES: There are no competing series.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Pantera soils are on alluvial fans and floodplains in wide arroyos and drainageways. Slopes range from 0 to 8 percent. The regolith consists of stratified gravelly and stony loamy alluvial sediments from mixed sources. Mean annual precipitation is 10 to 13 inches, and mean annual air temperature is 68 to 72 degrees F. Frost free period is 240 to 280 days and elevation is 1,735 to 4,140 feet.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are Chillon (P)(TX), Corazones (TX), Ojinaga (TX), and Tornillo (TX) soils. Chillon soils are on nonflooded low terraces, and have cambic horizons. Corazones soils are on higher pediment remnants and have calcic horizons. Ojinaga soils are on higher pediment remnants and have petrocalcic horizons. Tornillo soils are on adjacent alluvial flats, contain less than 5 percent rock fragments in the control section, and have cambic horizons.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. Permeability is moderately rapid to rapid. Runoff is negligible on slopes less than 1 percent and very low on slopes 1 to 3 percent, and medium on slopes 3 to 8 percent. Flash floods of very brief duration caused by rapid runoff from rainstorms in adjacent mountains are rare to common.

USE AND VEGETATION: Used for livestock grazing and wildlife habitat. Has low carrying capacity. Vegetation is mostly a sparse cover of creosotebush, fluffgrass, sixweeks grama, lechugilla, and ocotillo.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: West Texas. MLRA 42. The series is of moderate extent.

MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Phoenix, Arizona

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Brewster County, Texas; 1982

REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:

Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 15 inches (A horizon)

Entisol feature - the absence of diagnostic subsurface horizons

Fluvial feature - irregular decrease in organic carbon in the zone from 15 to 60 inches (C1, C2 horizons)

Classified according to Soil Taxonomy, Second Edition, 1999; Keys to Soil Taxonomy, Eleventh Edition, 2010

Type location moved to better represent the series concept after review lab data.

Update and revisions for the recorrelation of Brewster County, Texas, Main Part, 2/12/2008, CEM

Revised for the correlation of Big Bend National Park, TX, Oct. 2010 CEM

Revised for the correlation of Hudspeth County, Texas (Main Part) and Culberson County, Texas (Main Part); July, 2012, NMS

Revised for the correlation of Presidio County, Texas ; Oct, 2012, WWJ

ADDITIONAL DATA: TAMU Soil Characterization Laboratory data are available for the typical pedon SO4TX-377-003

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National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.