LOCATION TRAPPIST KY+IN OH TN VA
Established Series
Rev. JMR:JDM
03/2022
TRAPPIST SERIES
The Trappist series consists of moderately deep, well drained soils that formed in residuum weathered from acid shale on ridgetops, side slopes and benches. Slopes range from 2 to 60 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, mixed, semiactive, mesic Typic Hapludults
TYPICAL PEDON: Trappist silt loam--in woodland on a complex 40 percent slope. (Colors are for moist soil.)
A--0 to 2 inches; very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) silt loam; weak fine granular structure; very friable; many fine roots; 5 percent shale channers; very strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (1 to 3 inches thick)
E--2 to 6 inches; brown (10YR 5/3) silt loam; weak fine granular structure; very friable; many fine roots; 5 percent shale channers; very strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (0 to 7 inches thick)
BE--6 to 9 inches; strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) silty clay loam; moderate fine subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine roots; 5 percent shale channers; very strongly acid; gradual smooth boundary. (0 to 5 inches thick)
Bt1--9 to 21 inches; strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) silty clay; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; firm, sticky and slightly plastic; common fine roots; common faint clay films on faces of peds; 10 percent shale channers; very strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (5 to 20 inches thick)
Bt2--21 to 28 inches; strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) silty clay; common medium distinct yellowish red (5YR 4/6) and light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4) lithochromic mottles; moderate medium angular blocky structure; very firm, sticky and plastic; common faint clay films on faces of peds; 10 percent shale channers; very strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (5 to 15 inches thick)
C--28 to 35 inches; variegated yellowish red (5YR 4/6), yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) and light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) very channery clay; relic platy structure; very firm, sticky and plastic; 60 percent shale channers; very strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (0 to 20 inches thick)
R--35 inches; hard black fissile shale.
TYPE LOCATION: Rowan County, Kentucky; on a south facing side slope about 80 feet east of Kentucky Highway 801 and 900 feet north of the intersection of Kentucky Highways 801 and 1722; 1 mile north of the community of Farmers; 38 degrees, 09 minutes, 17 seconds N. latitude and 83 degrees, 33 minutes, 10 seconds W. Longitude; USGS Farmers Quadrangle.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum and depth to hard shale or siltstone bedrock ranges from 20 to 40 inches. Rock fragments, mostly channers of shale or siltstone, range from 0 to 35 percent in the solum and from 25 to 75 in the C horizon. Coverage of surface stones ranges from 0 to 10 percent. Reaction ranges from strongly to extremely acid, except where limed.
The A horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 3 or 4 and chroma of 1 to 4. The Ap horizon, where present, has hue of 10YR or 7.5YR, value of 4 or 5 and chroma of 2 to 4. Fine-earth texture is silt loam, silty clay loam or loam.
The E horizon has hue of 10YR, 7.5YR or 2.5Y, value of 4 to 6 and chroma of 2 to 4. Fine-earth texture is similar to the A horizon.
The Bt horizon has hue of 10YR, 7.5YR or 5YR, value of 4 to 6 and chroma of 4 to 8. Fine-earth texture is silty clay loam, silty clay or clay. Some pedons are variegated with lithochromic mottles in shades of red or brown.
Some pedons have BC horizons with colors and textures similar to the Bt horizon and lithochromic mottles that include shades of gray.
The C horizon has hue of 10YR, 7.5YR or 5YR, value of 4 to 6 and chroma of 4 to 8. Lithochromic mottles in shades of red, brown or gray are common. Fine-earth texture is silty clay, clay, clay loam or silty clay loam.
Some pedons have a thin Cr horizon 3 to 6 inches thick.
The R horizon is hard fissile shale or siltstone.
COMPETING SERIES: These are
Boden,
Braddock,
Buffstat,
Christian,
Clifton,
Clover,
Danripple,
Flagspring,
Goresville,
Groseclose,
Howell,
Muse,
Rapidan,
Sequoia,
Totier and
Unison series; the tentative
Casville, Mount
Rush,
Spears Mountain and
Yellowbottom series; and the inactive
Warminster series. All of these soils are more than 40 inches to hard bedrock with the exception of the Mount Rush, Sequoia and Spears Mountain series. The Mount Rush and Spears Mountain series weathered from metamorphic or igneous rock. The Sequoia series is a close competitor, but has paralithic contact above 40 inches with soft shale or siltstone and is not commonly associated with black shale.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Uplands including ridgetops, side slopes and benches. The soil developed mostly in residuum with some influence from colluvial creep on steeper slopes. Annual temperature ranges from about 53 to 57 degrees F. with a mean of 54 degrees. Annual precipitation ranges from 40 to 48 inches with a mean of 47 inches.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the
Berea,
Colyer,
Gilpin,
Greenbriar,
Jessietown,
Latham,
Muse,
Rohan,
Shelocta and
Tilsit series. Berea, Greenbriar and Jessietown soils are fine-silty. Colyer soils are clayey-skeletal and Rohan soils are loamy-skeletal. Both of these soils are less than 20 inches deep to bedrock. Gilpin and Shelocta soils are fine-loamy. Latham soils are moderately well drained and have a paralithic contact. Tilsit soils have a fragipan. Greenbriar, Muse, Shelocta and Tilsit soils are all more than 40 inches deep to bedrock.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained with slow permeability. Runoff is high on slopes less than 5 percent and very high on slopes greater than 5 percent.
USE AND VEGETATION: Principally hay or pasture, corn, tobacco, small grains and truck or fruit farms. Steeper areas are reverting to native forest of upland oaks, hickory, pine, yellow-poplar, blackgum, dogwood and persimmon.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Knobs region of Kentucky and similar areas in Ohio and Indiana. Extent is large.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Scott County, Indiana; 1959.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons in the pedon are:
Ochric epipedon: 0 to 2 inches, A
Argillic horizon: 9 to 28 inches, Bt1, Bt2
Lithic contact at 35 inches.
03/2022 Oi layer was removed from the typical pedon description because /freshly fallen, or undecomposed leaf litter or similar undecomposed material should not be included as a surface layer in the soil description. The typical pedon originally had a top layer described as undecomposed leaf material or similar undecomposed material. WJN
National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.