LOCATION AMOSTOWN MAEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Oxyaquic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Amostown fine sandy loam - red pine plantation. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise noted.)
Ap--0 to 10 inches; dark brown (10YR 3/3) fine sandy loam, (10YR 6/2) dry; weak fine and medium granular structure; very friable; many small roots; extremely acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (6 to 13 inches thick)
Bw1--10 to 18 inches; dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) fine sandy loam; weak fine and medium granular and weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; many small and medium roots; extremely acid; clear smooth boundary. (3 to 12 inches thick)
Bw2--18 to 23 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) fine sandy loam; weak fine and medium granular structure; friable; few medium roots and many very small roots; common medium prominent yellowish red (5YR 4/6) and dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) masses of iron accumulation; extremely acid; clear smooth boundary. (4 to 12 inches thick)
Bw3--23 to 32 inches; light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) sandy loam; weak fine and medium granular structure; friable; many very small roots; common coarse prominent yellowish red (5YR 4/6) and strong brown (7.5YR 5/8) masses of iron accumulation; very strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (0 to 15 inches thick)
2C--32 to 65 inches; grayish brown (10YR 5/2) varved silt and very fine sand; weak thick platy structure; firm, slightly sticky, slightly plastic; common medium prominent reddish brown (5YR 4/4) and dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) masses of iron accumulation; strongly acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Hampden County, Massachusetts; Robinson State Park in the Town of Agawam, 1/2 mile northeast of intersection of North Street and North Westfield Street; 200 feet west of Miller Brook in red pine plantation. USGS West Springfield 7 1/2 minute quadrangle; Latitude 42 degrees 5 minutes 12 seconds North and Longitude 72 degrees 40 minutes 16 seconds West; NAD 27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum and depth to the lithologic discontinuity ranges from 22 to 40 inches. Content of fine gravel ranges from 0 to 10 percent in the solum and is absent in the C horizon. Some pedons have a thin layer of fine gravel at the upper boundary of the 2C horizon. The soil ranges from extremely acid through moderately acid in the solum if not limed, and from strongly acid through moderately acid in the 2C horizon.
The Ap horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, with value and chroma of 2 through 4. Texture is fine sandy loam, sandy loam, or loam. It has weak granular or subangular blocky structure.
The Bw1 horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 4 through 8. It has weak subangular blocky or granular structure. The Bw2 and Bw3 horizons have hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 4 through 6, and chroma of 2 through 6. The Bw2 and Bw3 horizons have weak granular structure or they are massive. The B horizons are fine sandy loam or sandy loam.
The 2C horizon has hue of 2.5YR through 5Y, value of 3 through 6, and chroma of 1 through 4. It is very fine sandy loam, silt loam, or silt. The horizon is commonly varved or stratified. Thin strata of very fine sand are in many pedons.
COMPETING SERIES: The Bernardston, Broadbrook, Montauk, Mt. Zion (tentative), Nantucket, Paxton, Pollux, Scituate, and Wethersfield soils are currently in the same family. Bernardston, Broadbrook, Montauk, Nantucket, Paxton, Pollux, and Wethersfield soils lack redoximorphic concentrations in the B horizon. No information is available at this time to differentiate the Mt. Zion series from Amostown. Scituate soils have a sandy, dense till substratum.
The Brookfield, Cardigan, Charlton, Chatfield, Cheshire, Dutchess, Lordstown, Maplecrest, Newport, Pocomtuck (tentative), Riverhead, St. Albans, Steinsburg, Valois, and Yalesville series are in related families.
The Cardigan, Chatfield, Lordstown, Steinsburg and Yalesville soils have bedrock within 40 inches. Brookfield, Charlton, Cheshire, Dutchess, Maymead, Newport, Riverhead, St. Albans, and Valois soils do not have redox concentrations in the B horizon. Maplecrest soils have hue of 5YR or redder in the B and C horizons. No information is available at this time to differentiate the Pocumtuck (tentative) series from Amostown.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Amostown soils are on nearly level to gently sloping glaciofluvial or glaciolacustrine plains, deltas, or terraces. The soils formed in loamy glacial outwash underlain by lacustrine sediments. Slope ranges from 0 to 8 percent. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 44 to 50 inches; mean annual temperature from 45 to 50 degrees F. and mean growing season ranges from 140 to 200 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: Amostown is closely associated on the landscape with the competing, well drained Pollux soils. Other soils on nearby landscapes include the somewhat excessively drained Merrimac, the well drained Agawam, the competing moderately well drained Belgrade and Eldridge soils, the moderately well drained Scio, the somewhat poorly drained and poorly drained Raynham and Wareham soils, and the poorly drained Enosburg soils. Belgrade soils are coarse-silty. Eldridge soils are sandy over loamy. Scio soils are coarse-silty. Merrimac soils are sandy. Agawam soils have a sandy substratum.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Moderately well drained. Permeability is moderately rapid in the solum and slow to moderately slow in the substratum.
USE AND VEGETATION: The major use is for growing hay and pasture, but a small amount is used for growing row crops. Principal woodland trees are white pine, red oak, black oak, gray birch, and red maple.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: MLRAs 144A, 145, and 149B in Massachusetts and possibly Connecticut and New York. The series is of small extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Hampden County, Massachusetts, 1975.
REMARKS: This revision represents a change in classification from Typic Dystrochrepts to Oxyaquic Dystrochrepts.
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
1. Ochric epipedon - the zone from the surface of the soil to a depth of 10 inches (Ap horizon).
2. Cambic horizon - the zone from 10 inches to a depth of 32 inches (Bw horizon).
4. Oxyaquic feature - based upon saturation in one or more layers within 100 cm of the mineral soil surface, for one month or more per year, in 6 out of 10 years. An apparent water table is at 18 to 36 inches December through April.