LOCATION BLASDELL NYEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, active, mesic Typic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Blasdell very channery silt loam, idle. (Colors are for moist soil)
Ap-- 0 to 8 inches, dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) channery silt loam; weak fine granular structure; very friable; many fine roots; 30 percent shale fragments; strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (5 to 10 inches thick.)
Bw1-- 8 to 15 inches, yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) very channery silt loam; weak very fine subangular blocky structure; very friable; common fine roots; many pores; 60 percent shale fragments; very strongly acid; clear smooth boundary.
Bw2-- 15 to 25 inches, yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) very channery silt loam; weak fine subangular blocky structure; very friable; few fine roots; many pores; 60 percent shale fragments averaging about 2 inches in diameter; very strongly acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bw3-- 25 to 36 inches, dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) very channery loam; very weak fine subangular blocky structure; very friable; few roots in upper part; many pores; 60 percent shale fragments mostly with rounded edges; strongly acid; gradual smooth boundary. (The combined thickness of the Bw horizon is 18 to 40 inches.)
C-- 36 to 72 inches, brown (10YR 4/3) very channery loam; massive; friable; pockets of sandy loam interspersed in the channery strata; 70 percent shale fragments; strongly acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Erie County, New York, Town of Hamburg; 1,000 feet south of Ridge Road, 0.5 mile west of Village of Hamburg. USGS Hamburg, NY topographic quadrangle; Latitude 42 degrees, 43 minutes, 26 seconds N. and Longitude 78 degrees, 51 minutes, 40 seconds W., NAD 1927.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness ranges from 30 tthrough 50 inches. Depth to bedrock is more than 60 inches. Rock fragments are dominantly shale with 0 tthrough 10 percent erratic pebbles and cobblestones. There are 15 through 60 percent rock fragments in the A and upper part of the B horizons and from 45 through 75 percent in the lower part of the B and C horizons. Unless limed, reaction ranges from very strong acid through moderately acid in the A and B horizons and strongly acid through slightly acid in the C horizon.
The A horizon has hue of 10YR through 2.5Y, value of 3 or 4, and chroma of 2 through 4. Texture of the fine-earth fraction is silt loam. It has weak or moderate, fine or medium granular or subangular blocky structure. Consistence is friable or very friable.
The B horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y in the upper part and 10YR through 5Y in the lower part with value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 3 through 6. It may contain few high chroma mottles. Texture of the fine-earth fraction is loam or silt loam. Structure is very weak through moderate, fine or medium subangular blocky. Consistence is friable through firm.
The C horizon has hue of 10YR through 5Y, value of 3 through 5, and chroma of 2 through 4. Texture of the fine-earth fraction is loam or silt loam. The C horizon is massive. Consistence is friable or firm.
COMPETING SERIES: The Berks, Brownstown, Brownsville, Cadosia, Calvin, Cloverlick, Deadline, Highsplint, Jubin, Judyville, Keyesville (T), Lippitt, Manlius, Matewan, Nailkeg, Peaks, Solon (T), Sylco, Warwick, and Wyoming series is in the same family. Berks, Brownstown, Calvin, Judyville, Manlius, Matawan, Nailkeg, Peaks, Solon, and Syclo soils have bedrock at depths of 20 to 40 inches. Brownsville soils have rock fragments dominated by siltstone and fine-grained sandstone. Cadosia soils are formed in till and coluvium. Cloverlick soils formed in stony, loamy colluvium or residuum weathered from Pennsylvanian clastics. Deadline soils have bedrock at depths of 40 to 60 inches. Highsplint soils have more than 18 percent clay in the control section. Jubin soils have solum thicknesses greater than 80 inches. Lippitt and Keyesville soils have a paralithic contact at depths of 20 to 40 inches. Warwick soils have rock fragments dominated by slate and phyllite. Wyoming soils have more than 50 percent fine sand and coarser.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Blasdell soils occupy nearly level through moderately steep areas of old alluvial fans, valley trains, and terraces. The soils formed in water-sorted material dominated by fragments from local shale bedrock. Slope ranges from 0 through 35 percent. Mean annual air temperature ranges from 48 degrees through 52 degrees F. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 28 through 45 inches. Mean frost-free period ranges from 120 through 160 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the competing Manlius soils. Hamlin, Middlebury, Philo, Pope, Teel, and Tioga soils are on nearby floodplains. Mardin and Marilla soils are on adjacent till uplands. Unadilla and Scio soils are on low terraces. Allard soils are better drained associates and Farnham soils are wetter associates of Blasdell.
DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Well drained. The potential for surface runoff is negligible to medium. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is high throughout the soil.
USE AND VEGETATION: The soil is used for growing corn, hay, and small grain in support of dairy farming. Native vegetation includes sugar maple, black cherry, white ash, oak, and hemlock.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The northern part of the Allegheny Plateau in western and central New York, and possible northern Pennsylvania and northeastern Ohio. MLRA 101, 140, 142, 144A. The series is moderately extensive.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts.
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Erie County, New York, 1979.
REMARKS: Commonly during laboratory preparation the soft shale fragments are broken up so that the fraction, less than 2 millimeters is dominated by sand-size shale particles. This results in coarse sandy loam and sandy loam textures in the B and C horizons. However, due to the softness of the sand-size shale particles, and the characteristics of the soil as it occurs in its natural setting, it is believed that interpretations for loam and silt loam fine-earth textures will be more appropriate for the Blasdell soils.
Diagnostic horizons and features noted in the typical pedon are:
1) Ochric epipedon - from a depth of 0 to 8 inches (Ap horizon).
2) Cambic horizon - from a depth of 8 to 36 inches (Bw1, Bw2, and Bw3 horizons).