LOCATION BALLINGER CAEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, smectitic, thermic Xeric Haplogypsids
TYPICAL PEDON: Ballinger silty clay - grazed. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise noted.)
A--0 to 2.5 inches; pale brown (10YR 6/3) silty clay, dark brown (10YR 4/3) moist; strong medium granular structure; hard, friable, very sticky, very plastic; few very fine roots; few very fine tubular and many fine interstitial pores; 1/8 to 1/4 inch platy surface crust; strongly effervescent with disseminated lime; moderately alkaline (pH 8.0); abrupt smooth boundary. (1 to 3 inches thick)
Bky1--2.5 to 15 inches; pale brown (10YR 6/3) silty clay, dark brown (10YR 4/3) moist; weak coarse prismatic structure; hard, friable, very sticky, very plastic; few very fine roots; few very fine tubular and many very fine interstitial pores; 10 to 15 percent fine gypsum crystals in soft masses and pockets; strongly effervescent with disseminated lime and lime in filaments and seams; moderately alkaline (pH 8.0); gradual irregular boundary. (10 to 15 inches thick)
Bky2--15 to 23 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) mixed with light gray (10YR 7/2), reddish gray (5YR 5/2) and gray (5Y 5/1) silty clay, dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) moist; moderate fine angular blocky structure; very hard, firm, very sticky, very plastic; few very fine roots; common very fine interstitial pores; 20 to 25 percent fine gypsum crystals on faces of peds and in seams, soft masses, threads and pockets; violently effervescent with disseminated lime and lime in filaments, seams and soft masses; moderately alkaline (pH 8.0); gradual irregular boundary. (0 to 10 inches thick)
Cky--23 to 36 inches; grayish brown (2.5Y 5/2) mixed with light gray (10YR 7/2), brown (7.5YR 5/2) and olive (5Y 5/3) silty clay, very dark grayish brown (2.5Y 3/2) moist; weak angular blocky structure; hard, firm, very sticky, very plastic; common very fine interstitial pores; 20 to 25 percent fine gypsum crystals on faces of peds and in seams, soft masses, threads and pockets; violently effervescent with disseminated lime and lime in filaments, seams and soft masses; moderately alkaline (pH 8.0); clear wavy boundary. (10 to 15 inches thick)
Cr--36 to 56 inches; grayish brown (2.5Y 5/2) with bands of olive gray (5Y 4/2) mudstone, very dark grayish brown (2.5Y 3/2) and olive (5Y 5/4) moist; fractured, softens to silty clay when wet and rubbed; 1/8 to 1/4 inch seams of fine gypsum crystals make up 10 to 15 percent of the mudstone.
TYPE LOCATION: Santa Barbara County, California; approximately 12 miles west of New Cuyama on California Highway 166, 1.3 miles south of ranch road and 100 feet west on hillside.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Depth to a paralithic contact is 20 to 40 inches. The mean annual soil temperature is about 60 degrees F. and the soil temperature usually is below 47 degrees F. from about January 15 to late February. The soil between depths of 4 and 12 inches is usually dry all of the time from about May 15 until about January 1 and is moist in some or all parts all the rest of the year. Rock fragments are less than 1 percent. Textures throughout are clay or silty clay. Cracks 2 to 10 cm. wide extend from the surface to a depth of 20 inches or more or extend down to the paralithic contact. Cracks usually remain closed from about January until April or May and are open all the rest of the time. Slickensides are small and few to common, but intersecting slickensides are lacking. The soils are effervescent throughout. Gypsum makes up about 6 to 25 percent of the soil, but the amount of gypsum in any pedon increases several percent from the surface to a depth of 4 to 12 inches and remains nearly constant in the remainder of the soil profile. Other salts more soluble than gypsum have EC at 25 degrees C. of 3 to 25 millimhos/cm. The EC increases from the surface to a depth of about 4 to 12 inches and remains nearly constant in the rest of the soil profile. The A horizon is light brownish gray to light yellowish brown (10YR 6/2, 6/3, 6/4). It has medium to strong granular and weak to strong platy structure. The B2 horizon is pale brown to brown (10YR 6/3, 5/3, 6/4). It has weak or moderate prismatic structure. In some pedons the lower part of the B2 horizon has weak or moderate angular blocky structure. The C horizon of soil material is brown to olive (10YR 7/2, 7/3, 6/3, 6/4, 5/3, 5/4, 4/4; 7.5YR 5/2, 5/4, 4/4; 2.5Y 5/2, 5/4, 4/2; 5Y 5/2, 5/3, 5/4). Colors are related to color of the parent material.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Ayar, Karlo, Kettleman, Nacimiento, and Shedd series. Ayar and Nacimiento soils have mollic epipedons and are moist for about 180 days when the temperature is above 47 degrees F. Karlo soils have a lithic contact at depths of 24 to 40 inches and have a frigid temperature regime. Kettleman and Shedd soils have less than 35 percent clay and lack deep wide soil cracks.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: The Ballinger soils are strongly sloping to very steep and are on rounded hills at elevations of 1,800 to 3,000 feet. They formed in residuum weathered from soft shale and mudstone containing considerable gypsum and other salts. The climate is semiarid with warm dry summers and cool somewhat moist winters. Mean annual precipitation is 6 to 12 inches and snow is quickly melted. Average January temperature is about 43 degrees F., average July temperature is about 75 degrees F., and mean annual temperature is about 58 degrees F. The freeze-free season is 180 to 250 days.
PRINCIPAL ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the competing Kettleman and Shedd soils and the Wasioja soils. Wasioja soils have argillic horizons.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well-drained; medium to very rapid runoff; slow permeability.
USE AND VEGETATION: Used for grazing and low forage production. Vegetation is mainly red brome, desert trumpet, and other annual grasses and forbs. Much of the surface is bare.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Cuyama Valley, south-central California. The soils are inextensive.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Davis, California
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Santa Barbara County, California, 1973.
REMARKS: The Ballinger soils were formerly classified as Regosols.
OSED scanned by SSQA. Last revised by state on 10/73.
Series reclassified on September, 1994. Competing series not reviewed at that time.