LOCATION BERZATIC                NV

Established Series
Rev. TM/JBS/JVC
06/2016

BERZATIC SERIES

The Berzatic series consists of shallow, well drained soils that formed in residuum and colluvium derived from limestone, dolomite, and calcareous shale. Berzatic soils are on mountains and hills. Slopes are 8 to 75 percent. The mean annual precipitation is about 180 mm and the mean annual temperature is about 12 degrees C.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, superactive, calcareous, mesic Lithic Torriorthents

TYPICAL PEDON: Berzatic extremely gravelly fine sandy loam--rangeland. (Colors are for air-dry soil unless otherwise noted.) The soil surface is covered with about 45 percent gravel, 35 percent cobbles, and 10 percent rock outcrop.

A--0 to 5 cm; pale brown (10YR 6/3) extremely gravelly fine sandy loam, dark brown (10YR 3/3) moist; weak fine subangular blocky structure; soft, very friable, nonsticky and nonplastic; few very fine and fine roots; many very fine vesicular and common very fine tubular pores; 45 percent gravel and 25 percent cobbles; violently effervescent; strongly alkaline (pH 8.6); abrupt wavy boundary. (3 to 13 cm thick)

ABk--5 to 15 cm; pale brown (10YR 6/3) very gravelly fine sandy loam, brown (10YR 4/3) moist; moderate fine and medium subangular blocky structure; soft; very friable, nonsticky and nonplastic; common very fine and fine roots; common very fine interstitial and few very fine tubular pores; 40 percent gravel and 5 percent cobbles; few faint patches of carbonates on bottoms of peds; violently effervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.4); abrupt wavy boundary. (0 to 20 cm thick)

Bk--15 to 28 cm; pale brown (10YR 6/3) extremely cobbly fine sandy loam, brown (10YR 4/3) moist; massive; soft, very friable, nonsticky and nonplastic; common very fine and fine and few medium roots; common very fine interstitial and few very fine tubular pores; many distinct carbonate coats on gravel; 30 percent gravel and 60 percent cobbles; violently effervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.4); abrupt wavy boundary. (0 to 30 cm thick)

R--28 cm; hard fractured dolomite; carbonate coats on the bedrock contact.

TYPE LOCATION: Nye County, Nevada; in Downeyville Canyon about 5 miles northeast of Gabbs and south of Holly Well; about 2,570 feet south and 2,300 feet west of the northeast corner of section 12, T. 12 N., R. 36 E.; found by going right on a spur road 0.1 miles to trench at the end of the spur then 200 feet east of the end of the trench; USGS Downeyville 7.5 minute topographic quadrangle; latitude 38 degrees 55 minutes 4 seconds N and longitude 117 degrees 53 minutes 44 seconds W; WGS84 Decimal Degrees 38.9177778 latitude, -117.8788889 longitude.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:
Soil moisture: Usually moist in the winter and spring and intermittently moist in some part for short periods for 10 to 20 days from July to September following convection storms; dry in summer and fall; typic aridic soil moisture regime.
Mean annual soil temperature: 11 to 13 degrees C.
Depth to bedrock: 10 to 50 cm to a lithic contact.
Reaction: Moderately alkaline or strongly alkaline.
Calcium carbonate equivalent: 15 to 35 percent of the less than 20 mm fraction.

Particle-size control section - Clay content: 8 to 18 percent;
Rock fragments: 35 to 60 percent dominated by gravel and channers; some pedons are dominated by cobbles.

A horizon
Value: 5 through 7 dry, 4 or 5 moist.
Chroma: 2 or 3, dry or moist.
Structure: Subangular blocky or platy.

Bk horizon
Hue: 7.5YR through 2.5Y.
Value: 6 or 7 dry, 4 or 5 moist.
Chroma: 2 through 4, dry or moist.
Texture (fine earth fraction): Fine sandy loam, sandy loam or light loam.
Rock fragments: 45 to 75 percent, dominantly cobbles but is dominated by gravel in some pedons. Some pedons include a high percent of flat, elongated shale fragments, but are always dominated by subrounded or angular fragments.
Structure: Subangular blocky or is massive.
Identifiable secondary carbonates: Present disseminated throughout the matrix, segregated as thin coats and as pendants on rock fragments.

COMPETING SERIES: These are the Blacktop, Cadrina, Pintwater, Singatse, Sojur, and Tsaya series.

Blacktop soils are dominated by stones and do not have identifiable secondary carbonates. Cadrina soils have mean annual soil temperature of 8 to 10 degrees C. Pintwater soils are heavily influenced by pyroclastic materials and have secondary silica and carbonate pendants on gravels, and have less than 15 percent calcium carbonate equivalent. Singatse soils have less than 15 percent calcium carbonate equivalent. Sojur and Tsaya soils have calcium carbonate equivalent of less than 15 percent.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Berzatic soils are on mountains and hills. They formed in residuum and colluvium derived from limestone, dolomite, and calcareous shale. Slopes are 8 to 75 percent. Elevations range from 1,525 to 1,830 meters. The mean annual precipitation is 100 to 200 mm, the mean annual temperature is 10 to 14 degrees C, and the frost-free period is 110 to 150 days.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: This is the Kyler soils. Kyler soils have carbonatic mineralogy.

DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Well drained; moderately rapid permeability; high saturated hydraulic conductivity.

USE AND VEGETATION: Berzatic soils are used for livestock grazing. The present vegetation is shadscale, wolfberry, galleta, ephedra, Indian ricegrass, bud sagebrush, winterfat, and scattered littleleaf horsebrush and spiny menodora.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: West-central Nevada. These soils are not extensive with about 8,200 acres of the series mapped to date. MLRA 29.

MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Davis, California.

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Nye County, Nevada, Northwest Part, 1996.

REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
Ochric epipedon - The zone from the soil surface to 18 cm (A and part of ABk horizons).
Identifiable secondary carbonates - The zone from 5 to 28 cm (ABk and Bk horizons).
Lithic contact - The boundary at 28 cm to underlying hard, unweathered bedrock (R layer).
Particle-size control section - The zone from the soil surface to 28 cm (A, ABk, and Bk horizons).

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National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.