LOCATION ANNISQUAM MAEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, active, mesic Oxyaquic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Annisquam gravelly fine sandy loam, on a 19 percent slope in an extremely bouldery forested area. (Colors are for moist soil.)
A--0 to 4 inches; very dark gray (10YR 3/1) gravelly fine sandy loam; weak fine and medium granular structure; very friable; many fine and medium and few coarse roots; 30 percent boulders and stones, 5 percent cobbles, 10 percent gravel; very strongly acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (0 to 6 inches thick)
Bw1--4 to 18 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) very gravelly fine sandy loam; weak fine granular structure; very friable; common fine and medium and few coarse roots; 25 percent boulders and stones, 10 percent cobbles, 25 percent gravel; strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (8 to 16 inches thick)
Bw2--18 to 28 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) extremely gravelly coarse sandy loam; weak fine and medium subangular blocky structure parting to weak fine granular; friable; few fine and medium roots; 5 percent stones and boulders, 25 percent cobbles, 40 percent gravel; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (6 to 12 inches thick)
Cd--28 to 65 inches; olive brown (2.5Y 4/4) very gravelly loamy coarse sand; weak thick platy structure; very firm, brittle; very few fine roots in upper part; 5 percent stones and boulders, 15 percent cobbles, 30 percent gravel; moderately acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Essex County, Massachusetts; city of Gloucester, south bank of borrow area at the southwest corner of the Gloucester sanitary landfill. USGS Gloucester 7 1/2 minute quadrangle; 42 degrees 35 minutes 14 seconds N., 70 degrees 42 minutes 24 seconds W; NAD 27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum and depth to the dense till range from 20 to 30 inches. Fragments larger than 10 inches range from 5 to 30 percent in the surface layer and from 5 to 25 percent in the subsoil and substratum. Three to 10 inch size fragments range from 0 to 10 percent in the surface layer and from 5 to 25 percent in the subsoil and substratum. Fragments less than 3 inches range from 5 to 10 percent in the surface layer, 20 to 40 percent in the subsoil, and 20 to 55 percent in the substratum. The soil ranges from extremely acid to moderately acid.
The A horizon has hue of 5YR to 10YR, value of 2 to 4, and chroma of 1 to 4. Texture is fine sandy loam or sandy loam. Structure is weak, fine, or medium granular. Consistence is friable or very friable.
Some pedons have an 0 horizon underlain by an E horizon which is up to 10 inches thick. It has hue of 10YR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 1 or 2. Texture is sandy loam or fine sandy loam.
The Bw horizon has hue of 10YR to 2.5Y, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 4 to 6. The B horizon texture is fine sandy loam, sandy loam, or coarse sandy loam. Structure is weak fine or medium subangular blocky or granular. Consistence is friable or very friable.
The Cd horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 3 or 4. Texture is loamy sand, loamy coarse sand, or loamy fine sand. Structure is weak or moderate, thin to thick platy. Consistence is firm or very firm and brittle. Some pedons have a thin friable C horizon which overlies and is otherwise similar to the Cd horizon.
COMPETING SERIES: There are no other soils currently in the same family.
Soils in related families include the Amostown, Bernardston, Broadbrook, Montauk, Nantucket, Paxton, Pollux, Scituate, and Wethersfield soils. All of these soils have less than 35 percent rock fragments in the control section.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Annisquam soils are gently sloping to steep soils on till plains and moraines. Slope ranges from 3 to 35 percent. They formed in a loamy mantle over dense glacial till derived mostly from granite. Mean annual temperature is 50 degrees F., mean annual precipitation is 43 inches, and the growing season ranges from 190 to 220 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: The Annisquam soils are associated in a drainage sequence with the following nonskeletal soils: the shallow to bedrock, well and somewhat excessively drained, Hollis, the well drained Montauk, the moderately well drained Scituate, the poorly drained Ridgebury, and the very poorly drained Whitman. They are also closely associated with the Canton soils which have friable substrata. They are less extensively associated with Hinckley, Merrimac, Windsor, Sudbury, and Deerfield soils which formed in glaciofluvial deposits; Charlton, Paxton, Sutton, Woodbridge, and Leicester soils formed in loamy till; and Boxford, Scitico, and Maybid soils formed in glaciolacustrine or marine deposits on nearby landscapes.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained, runoff is medium. Permeability is moderately rapid in the solum and moderately slow in the substratum.
USE AND VEGETATION: Mostly forested or idle. Surface stones and boulders limit use for most purposes. Some areas have been used for industrial development. Many small scattered areas are in urban uses. Common trees are northern red oak, white oak, shagbark hickory, sugar maple, eastern white pine, eastern hemlock, gray birch, and red maple.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: MLRA 144A in the Cape Ann area of northeastern Massachusetts. The series is of small extent: 2,520 acres in Massachusetts.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts.
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Essex County, Massachusetts, 1981.
REMARKS: 1. The classification is updated with this revision to Loamy-skeletal, mixed, active, mesic Oxyaquic Dystrudepts. The former classification was Loamy-skeletal, mixed, mesic Oxyaquic Dystrochrepts. 2. The depth to densic materials (dense till) is revised from 18 to 30 inches to 20 to 30 inches. 3. Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
a. Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 4 inches (A horizon).
b. Cambic horizon - the zone from 4 to 28 inches (B horizon).
c. Loamy-skeletal particle size - the zone from 10 inches to the top of the Cd horizon has weighted average textures of sandy loam and 65 percent rock fragments (B horizon).
d. Densic material - dense basal till from 28 to 65 inches (Cd horizon)
e. 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. A perched water table is at a depth of 20 to 30 inches from January to April.