LOCATION AGON                    NV

Established Series
Rev. JR/RLB
04/2015

AGON SERIES

The Agon series consists of moderately deep, well drained soils over a thin duripan underlain by bedrock, Agon soils formed in mixed alluvium. Agon soils are on rock pediment and remnants. Slopes are 2 to 8 percent. The mean annual precipitation is about 7 inches and the mean annual temperature is about 60 degrees F.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Sandy, mixed, thermic Typic Haplodurids

TYPICAL PEDON: Agon very gravelly loamy sand, rangeland. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise noted) The soil surface is partially covered with 55 percent pebbles and 2 percent cobbles.

A--0 to 3 inches; light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) very gravelly loamy sand, dark brown (10YR 4/3) moist; weak very fine platy structure; soft, very friable, nonsticky and nonplastic; common very fine and fine roots; common very fine and fine tubular pores; 35 percent pebbles; strongly effervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.4); clear smooth boundary. (2 to 4 inches thick)

C1--3 to 27 inches; very pale brown (10YR 7/3) gravelly loamy sand, dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) moist; massive; soft, very friable, nonsticky and nonplastic; common fine and medium roots; few very fine tubular and interstitial pores; 20 percent pebbles; violently effervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.4); clear smooth boundary. (20 to 30 inches thick)

C2--27 to 32 inches; light brown (7.5YR 6/4) gravelly loamy sand, dark brown (7.5YR 4/4) moist; moderate fine and medium subangular blocky structure; slightly hard, friable, nonsticky and nonplastic; many very fine and fine roots; few fine tubular pores; 20 percent pebbles; strongly effervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.4); abrupt wavy boundary (0 to 5 inches thick)

2Bqkm--32 to 33 inches; very pale brown (10YR 7/3) indurated silica and lime-cemented laminar duripan; pale brown (10YR 6/3) moist; extremely hard, brittle; violently effervescent. (0.1 to 1.0 inch thick)

3R--33 to 34 inches; hard rhyolitic tuff bedrock.

TYPE LOCATION: Nye County, Nevada; approximately 1.5 miles south of Bailey's Hotspring and about 1,120 feet east and 1,580 feet south of the northwest corner of section 27, T. 11 S., R. 47 E.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:

Soil moisture - Usually dry. Moist for short periods of time in the late winter and 10 to 20 days July through October following summer convection storms.

Soil temperature - 63 to 67 degrees F.

Depth to duripan - 30 to 39 inches.

Depth to bedrock - 30 to 40 inches.



Control section - Clay content: 3 to 5 percent.

Rock fragments: 15 to 35 percent, mostly pebbles.



A horizon - Value: 4 through 6, dry or moist.



C horizons - Hue: 10YR or 7.5YR.

Value: 6 or 7 dry, 4 or 5 moist.

Chroma: 3 or 4 dry, or moist.

Texture: Gravelly loamy sand or gravelly sand.

Consistence: Soft or slightly hard dry, very friable or friable moist.



COMPETING SERIES: This is Bullfor (NV) series. The Bullfor soils do not have bedrock within 40 inches.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Agon soils are on rock pediment remnants. These soils formed in mixed alluvium over volcanic bedrock. Slopes are 2 to 8 percent. Elevations are 3,500 to 4,500 feet. The climate is hot, arid with relatively even distribution of precipitation with slight peaks in January and August. The mean annual precipitation is about 5 to 8 inches; mean annual temperature is about 59 to 62 degrees F., and the frost-free season is 190 to 210 days.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Orwash and Wilst series. Orwash soils lack hardpans. Wilst soils are shallow to a strongly cemented pan.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. Slow runoff; rapid permeability.

USE AND VEGETATION: Rangeland and wildlife habitat. The present vegetation is mainly creosotebush, spiny menodora, shadscale, Nevada ephedra, spiny hopsage and Anderson wolfberry.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southern Nevada. These soils are not extensive.

MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: PHOENIX, ARIZONA

SERIES PROPOSED: Nye County, Nevada, Southwest Part, 1983. The name is coined.

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

Duripan - The zone from about 32 to 32 1/4 inches (2Bqkm horizon)

Lithic contact - The boundary between the duripan and bedrock at a depth of about 32 1/4 inches.

Particle-size control section - The zone from 10 inches to about 32 inches. (Part of the C1 horizon and the C2 horizon)

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National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.