LOCATION BERLIN CTEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, semiactive, mesic Aquic Dystric Eutrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Berlin silt loam, 4 percent slope, in a wooded area at an elevation of about 100 feet. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise noted.)
Ap-- 0 to 6 inches; dark reddish brown (5YR 3/2) silt loam, pinkish gray (5YR 6/2) dry; weak medium granular structure; friable; many very fine and fine roots; 5 percent fine gravel; strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (6 to 12 inches thick)
Bw1-- 6 to 12 inches; reddish brown (5YR 4/3) silt loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common very fine and fine roots; 5 percent fine gravel; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bw2-- 12 to 20 inches; reddish brown (5YR 4/4) silty clay loam; weak coarse subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine roots; 3 percent fine gravel; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bw3-- 20 to 34 inches; dark reddish brown (5YR 3/4) silty clay loam; weak very coarse prismatic structure parting to moderate coarse subangular blocky; discontinuous black coatings on ped faces; firm; few fine roots along prism faces; 2 percent fine gravel; common fine and medium distinct pinkish gray (5YR 6/2), prominent pale brown (10YR 6/3), and distinct light reddish brown (5YR 6/3) iron depletions; moderately acid; gradual wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bw horizons is 18 to 38 inches.)
C1-- 34 to 48 inches; dark reddish brown (5YR 3/4) silty clay loam; weak very coarse prismatic structure parting to thin plates along varved bedding planes; discontinuous black coatings on plate surfaces; firm; few fine prominent reddish yellow (7.5YR 6/6 and 7.5YR 6/8) masses of iron accumulation and distinct reddish gray (5YR 5/2) iron depletions; slightly acid; clear wavy boundary.
C2-- 48 to 65 inches; dark reddish brown (5YR 3/3) varved silt and clay; silty clay loam weighted average texture, few thin strata of very fine sand; massive separating into thin plates along varved bedding planes; very firm; slightly acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Hartford County, Connecticut; town of Rocky Hill, 450 feet northeast of the intersection of Orchard Street and Raymond Road, and 50 feet west of Interstate 91; on the Hartford South USGS topographic quadrangle, latitude 41 degrees 40 minutes 37 seconds N., longitude 72 degrees 39 minutes 30 seconds W., NAD 27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum ranges from 24 to 45 inches. Weighted average clay content ranges from 18 to 35 percent in the control section and from 18 to 45 percent below 40 inches. Rock fragments, mostly fine gravel, range from 0 to 10 percent by volume in the solum and from 0 to 5 percent in the substratum. Reaction ranges from very strongly acid through neutral in the A horizon, strongly acid through neutral in the B horizon, and from moderately acid through neutral in the C horizon.
The Ap horizon has hue of 5YR or 7.5YR, value of 3 or 4, and chroma of 2 or 3. Dry value is 6 or more. Undisturbed pedons have a thin A horizon with value of 2 or 3 and chroma of 1 to 3. The Ap or A horizon is silt loam or silty clay loam.
The Bw horizon has hue of 5YR or 2.5YR, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 3 to 6. It has iron depeltions above a depth of 24 inches. The Bw horizon is silt loam or silty clay loam, except in some pedons the lower part of the horizon is silty clay. Weighted average clay content is 18 to 35 percent. Structure of the upper part of the Bw horizon is subangular blocky, granular, or platy. The lower part of the horizon is platy, subangular blocky, blocky, or has prismatic structure parting to plates or blocks. The Bw horizon is friable or firm.
The C horizon has hue of 5YR or 2.5YR, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 3 to 6. Texture of individual varves ranges from very fine sand through silt to clay, but the weighted average texture of the horizon ranges from silt loam to silty clay. The C horizon is massive, platy, or has weak prismatic structure parting to plates. Consistence is firm or very firm.
COMPETING SERIES: The Brancroft series is the only competing series at this time. Brancroft soils have hue of 7.5YR or yellower in the Bw and C horizons.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Berlin soils are nearly level to moderately steep and are on lacustrine terraces. Slope commonly is 0 to 8 percent but the range includes 0 to 25 percent. Typically, the soils are on slightly elevated knolls on the landscape. Steeper areas are mainly on terrace risers or on short sideslopes along drainageways. The soils formed in silty and clayey glaciolacustrine deposits. Mean annual temperature ranges from 45 to 54 degrees F, mean annual precipitation ranges from 40 to 50 inches, and the growing season ranges from 135 to 195 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the competing Belgrade soils and the Branford, Cheshire, Ellington, Elmridge, Hartford, Ludlow, Scitico, Shaker, Watchaug, Wethersfield, and Wilbraham soils on nearby landscapes. The Branford, Ellington, and Hartford soils are glaciofluvial associates formed in loamy over stratified sandy and gravelly deposits. Cheshire, Ludlow, Watchaug, Wethersfield, and Wilbraham soils are nearby upland soils formed in reddish glacial till. Elmridge and Shaker soils are moderately well drained and poorly drained associates on lacustrine terraces that formed in loamy over clayey deposits. Scitico soils are on lower positions and have more than 35 percent clay in the control section.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Moderately well drained and somewhat poorly drained. Surface runoff is medium to rapid. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high or high in the surface layer and upper subsoil, low to moderately high in the lower substratum, and moderately low or low in the substratum. Berlin soils have a seasonal high water table and are slow to dry out.
USE AND VEGETATION: Cleared areas are used for hay, pasture, silage corn, or nursery stock. Many areas are in community development. A few areas are idle or are wooded. Common trees are black oak, white oak, red maple, ash, elm, gray birch, red cedar, and hemlock.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Connecticut Valley Lowlands of Connecticut; MLRA 145. The series is of small extent, about 2,500 acres.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Hartford County, Connecticut, 1959.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
1. Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 6 inches (Ap horizon).
2. Cambic horizon - the zone from 6 to 34 inches (Bw horizon).
3. Aquic feature - iron depletions are within a depth of 24 inches (Bw3 horizon).
4. Dystric Eutrudepts feature - base saturation is greater than 60 percent within a depth of 10 to 30 inches (Bw3 horizon).
5. Fine-silty particle-size class - the control section from 10 to 40 inches.
ADDITIONAL DATA: Refer to publication "Profile Disconformity and Soil Formation on Glaciolacustrine Deposits," Sawhney, B.L., Frink, C.R., and Hill, D.E.; Soil Science Vol. 94, No. 5, Nov. 1962. Base saturation test data are also available for pedon S75CT-7-19.