LOCATION BEREA KYEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, semiactive, mesic Aquic Hapludults
TYPICAL PEDON: Berea silt loam - cultivated (Colors are for moist soil.)
Ap--0 to 8 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) silt loam; moderate fine granular structure; very friable; many fine roots; neutral; clear wavy boundary. (5 to 10 inches thick)
Bt1--8 to 13 inches; light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) silt loam; moderate fine and medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine roots; few distinct clay films on faces of peds and in pores; common distinct brown (10YR 4/3) coats in root channels and pores; 2 percent black shale channers; very strongly acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bt2--13 to 20 inches; light yellowish brown (2.5Y 6/4) silt loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine roots; common distinct clay films on faces of peds and in pores; few fine prominent strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) masses of iron accumulation; 2 percent black shale channers; very strongly acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bt3--20 to 25 inches; light yellowish brown (2.5Y 6/4) silt loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; firm; common distinct clay films on faces of peds; common medium prominent strong brown (7.5YR 4/6) masses of iron accumulation and common medium distinct light brownish gray (2.5Y 6/2) iron depletions; 2 percent black shale channers; very strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (combined thickness of the Bt horizon ranges from 15 to 30 inches)
2Cr--25 to 29 inches; black (N2/0) weathered shale; extremely acid; abrupt broken boundary. (0 to 15 inches thick)
2R--29 to 33 inches; extremely acid; black (10YR 2/1) hard fissile shale.
TYPE LOCATION: Lincoln County, Kentucky about 8 miles southeast of Stanford; 2,500 feet northeast of the William Whitley House and 600 feet east of Sportsmans Hill; 37 degrees, 28 minutes, 11.5 seconds N. latitude and 84 degrees, 32 minutes, 35.2 seconds W. Longitude; USGS Crab Orchard Quadrangle, NAD 83.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum and depth to hard bedrock ranges from 20 to 40 inches. Rock fragments range from 0 to 10 percent in the upper solum and from 0 to 60 percent in the lower solum and substratum. Reaction ranges from strongly to extremely acid throughout the profile, except where limed.
The Ap horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 2 to 4. A thin A horizon that has similar hue, but value of 3 or 4, and chroma of 1 or 2, is present in wooded areas. Texture is silt loam or rarely silty clay loam.
The E horizon, where present, has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 5 or 6, and chroma of 2 to 4. Texture is silt loam.
The Bt horizon has hue of 7.5YR to 2.5Y, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 4 to 6. Redoximorphic features in shades of brown, yellow, or gray are common. Texture is silt loam or silty clay loam.
A 2Btg or 2Cg horizon is present in some pedons with hue of 7.5YR to 5Y, value of 3 to 6, and chroma of 1 to 8. In places, these horizons are variegated without dominant value or chroma. Texture is silty clay loam, silty clay or clay.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the established Hibler, Liverpool, Morehead, and Scottsburg series and the tentative Leipsic series in the same family and the Deputy and Knobtop series are in closely related family. None of these competing or closely related series has lithic contact within 40 inches with the exception of the Knobtop series which is physiographically similar, but formed in loess overlying felsitic igneous rock.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Berea soils are on broad ridgetops in the Knobs physiographic region of Kentucky, less commonly they are located on shoulder slopes, narrow benches, and isolated nose slopes. These soils formed in 18 to 36 inches of silty material overlying Devonian aged black shale residuum. Near the OSD site temperature ranges from 50 to 59 degrees F. with a mean of about 55 degrees. Precipitation ranges from 36 to 50 inches annually with a mean of about 43 inches.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Beasley, Colyer, Cruze, Greenbriar, Jessietown, Muse, Rohan, Shrouts, Tilsit, and Trappist soils. Beasley, Cruze, Muse, Shrouts, and Trappist soils have more than 35 percent clay in their particle-size control sections. Colyer and Rohan soils are 8 to 20 inches deep to bedrock. Tilsit soils have fragipans.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Moderately well drained with moderately slow permeability.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are in pasture and hay. Some are used for corn, tobacco, and small grains. The rest are forested or idle. Native vegetation is mixed hardwoods such as oaks, maples, hickory, ash, gum, yellow poplar, American beech and a few plantations of Virginia or shortleaf pines.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Knobs region of Kentucky, possibility similar areas in Ohio. Extent is small.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Rockcastle County, Kentucky; 1973.
REMARKS: The Official Series Location was moved to Lincoln County, Kentucky during the MLRA-121 update.
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
Ochric epipedon - Ap 0 to 8 inches.
Argillic horizon - Bt1, Bt2, and Bt3 8 to 25 inches.
Paralithic contact at 25 inches.
Lithic contact at 29 inches.
National Soil Survey Laboratory Characterization Sample: 90KY137018