LOCATION ALBERTVILLE AL+GA TNEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, mixed, semiactive, thermic Typic Hapludults
TYPICAL PEDON: Albertville silt loam--in sericea lespedeza pasture. (Colors are for moist soil.)
Ap--0 to 6 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) silt loam; weak fine granular structure; friable; many fine roots; few fine quartz gravels and shale channers; strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (5 to 8 inches thick)
Bt1--6 to 15 inches; brownish yellow (10YR 6/6) silty clay loam; weak fine subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine roots; few fine quartz gravels and shale channers; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (0 to 9 inches thick)
Bt2--15 to 22 inches; strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) silty clay; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; firm; few fine roots; common faint clay films on faces of peds; few shale channers; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (7 to 20 inches thick)
Bt3--22 to 34 inches; strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) clay; common medium distinct yellowish red (5YR 5/6), common medium prominent red (10R 4/8), and yellowish brown (10YR 5/8) lithochromic mottles; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; firm; common faint clay films on faces of peds; few shale channers; very strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (0 to 12 inches thick)
Bt4--34 to 47 inches; yellow (10YR 7/6) silty clay; common medium prominent strong brown (7.5YR 5/8), common fine faint yellowish brown (10YR 5/6), and common fine prominent light gray (10YR 7/2) lithochromic mottles; moderate medium platy structure; firm; common faint clay films on surfaces of fragments; 5 percent shale parachanners; very strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (7 to 32 inches thick)
Cr--47 to 66 inches; horizontally bedded, strongly acid, rippable shale.
TYPE LOCATION: Blount County, Alabama; 1/2 mile west of Fairview in the NW1/4NW1/4sec. 32, T. 12 S., R. 1 E.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness and depth to soft shale ranges from 40 to 60 inches. Content of shale or sandstone fragments ranges from 0 to 15 percent. Reaction is strongly or very strongly acid, except for surface horizons where the soil has been limed.
The Ap horizon has hue of 2.5Y or 10YR, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 2 to 4. In untilled areas, the A horizon
has hue of 2.5Y or 10YR, value of 3, chroma of 1 to 3, and is less than 4 inches thick. Texture is loam, silt loam, or fine sandy loam.
The Bt horizons have hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 5 to 7, and chroma of 4 to 8. In some pedons, the lower Bt horizons commonly display lithochromic mottles in shades of brown, red, yellow, or less commonly gray. Texture is mostly silty clay loam, clay loam, or silt loam, but includes silty clay or clay in the lower part. Clay content of the control section ranges from 35 to 60 percent.
The BC or CB horizons, where present, have colors and textures similar to the lower Bt horizons. Lithochromic mottles in various shades of red, brown, yellow, and gray are present in most pedons and commonly increase with depth.
The Cr horizon is soft shale that commonly displays relic platy structure and becomes massive with depth. A lithic contact with harder materials is present in some pedons, but is not a requirement of the series.
COMPETING SERIES:
Badin (NC): Moderately deep and moderately permeable soils that weathered from fine-grained metavolcanic rocks of the Carolina Slate Belt.
Bengal (OK): Moderately deep soils formed in colluvium and the underlying residuum weathered from Pennsylvanian aged shales (MLRA 119).
Bonweir (TX): Deep soils formed in stratified loamy and clayey Pleistocene aged coastal plain sediments.
Brockroad (VA): Deep soils with moderate permeability formed in medium and fine textured sediments and clayey residuum weathered from mica, schist, and gneiss.
Carnasaw (OK): Deep and slowly permeable soils that formed in residuum weathered from Pennsylvanian aged shale (MLRAs' 119 & 118). They have redder hues and allow more rock fragments in the solum.
Catharpin (VA): Very deep soils formed in moderately fine and fine textured overlay material and the underlying residuum weathered from gneiss and schist.
Coghill (TN): Very deep, moderate and moderately slowly permeable soils that formed in residuum weathered from quartzose limestone and interbedded calcareous sandstone and shale.
Corryton (TN): Very deep, moderately slowly permeable soils that formed in residuum weathered from Cambrian and Ordovician aged shales in the Southern Appalachian Ridges and Valleys (MLRA 128). They are interbedded with thin seams of limestone in places and allow more rock fragments in the solum and substratum.
Cunningham (GA): Deep, slowly permeable soils formed in residuum weathered from acid shales containing thin strata of limestone, siltstone, or sandstone. They have a thinner solum, base saturation above 35 percent in the upper Bt horizon, and more rock fragments in the lower solum.
Cuthbert (TX): Moderately deep, moderately slowly or slowly permeable soils formed in residuum weathered from Tertiary aged weakly consolidated loamy, sandy, or shaly materials.
Galilee (TX): Moderately deep, slowly permeable soils weathered from clayey shale, shaly clay, or sandstones.
Kirvin (TX): Deep, moderately slowly permeable soils formed in Tertiary aged weakly consolidated loamy and shaly materials. They allow hues redder than 7.5YR in the lower solum and substratum.
Luverne (AL): Deep, moderately slowly permeable soils that formed in stratified marine sediments of the Southern Coastal Plain.
Marbledale (T) (TN): Very deep, moderately permeable soils that formed in old alluvium on intermediate or high stream terraces in the Southern Appalcahian Ridges and Valleys (MLRA 128). They allow hues redder than 7.5YR and sandier textures in the lower solum.
Masada (VA): Very deep, moderately permeable soils formed in old alluvium on terraces. They allow hues redder than 7.5YR and sandier textures throughout the solum
Mayodan (NC): Very deep, moderately permeable soils that formed in residuum weathered from Triassic materials on uplands. They allow hues redder than 7.5YR and sandier textures in the lower solum.
McQueen (AL): Very deep,slowly permeable soils on stream terraces formed in stratified clayey and loamy alluvium.
Nason (VA): Deep, moderately permeable soils weathered from schist and other fine grained metamorphic rocks.
Peakin (NC): Very deep, slowly permeable soils formed in residuum weathered from Triassic aged sandstone, mudstone, silt stone, shale, and conglomerate.
Sweatman (MS): Very deep, moderately permeable soils on upland ridges and hill slopes of the Southern Coastal Plain that formed in marine sediment consisting of thinly bedded clayey shales and sandy and loamy material.
Tatum (NC): Deep, moderately permeable soils formed in residuum weathered from sericite, schist, phyllite, or other fine-grained metamorphic rocks.
Townley (AL): Moderately deep soils on upland ridgetops and side slopes formed in residuum weathered from shale or interbedded sandstone and shale.
Uwharrie (NC): Very deep, moderately permeable soils mostly weathered from fine grained metamorphic or igneous pyroclastic rocks.
Vance (NC): Slowly permeable soils that are moderately deep to saprolite but very deep to bedrock that formed in residdum weathered from acid crystalline rocks of the peidmont.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Albertville soils are on uplands. Slope gradients range from 2 to 25 percent. These soils formed in residuum weathered from shale, interbedded shale and sandstone, or less commonly shale and siltstone. The climate is warm and humid. Near the type location, the average annual air temperature is about 63 degrees F. and the average annual precipitation is about 53 inches.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the competing Townley series and the Enders, Hartsells, Linker, Nectar, and Wynnville series. Townley soils are moderately deep to paralithic contact with shale or other soft materials. Hartsells, Linker, Nectar, and Wynnville soils have less than 35 percent clay in the particle-size control section.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained with moderately slow or slow permeability.
USE AND VEGETATION: Cleared areas are used for growing pasture, cotton, corn, and small grains. Natural vegetation consists of post oak, red oak, white oak, hickory, and shortleaf pine.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, and possibly Tennessee. The series is of large extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Marshall County, Alabama; 1956.
REMARKS: The Albertville series was formerly classified in the Red-Yellow Podzolic great soil group.