LOCATION BLEDSOE KY+TNEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, mixed, active, mesic Typic Hapludalfs
TYPICAL PEDON: Bledsoe silt loam--in pasture--on a concave 45 percent slope. (Colors are for moist soil.)
A--0 to 5 inches; dark brown (10YR 3/3) silt loam; weak fine granular structure; very friable; many fine roots; neutral; clear smooth boundary. (2 to 6 inches thick)
BA--5 to 14 inches; brown (7.5YR 4/4) silty clay loam; weak fine and medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine roots; 2 percent limestone and siltstone fragments; neutral; clear smooth boundary. (0 to 15 inches thick)
Bt1--14 to 22 inches; brown (7.5YR 4/4) silty clay; moderate fine and medium angular blocky and subangular blocky structure; firm; few fine roots; few faint clay films; 5 percent limestone and siltstone fragments; neutral; clear smooth boundary.
Bt2--22 to 35 inches; brown (7.5YR 4/4) clay; moderate medium angular blocky and subangular blocky structure; very firm; common faint clay films; 5 percent limestone and siltstone fragments; neutral; clear smooth boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bt horizon is 10 to 40 inches thick)
BC--35 to 52 inches; brown (7.5YR 4/4) gravelly silty clay; weak fine and medium subangular blocky structure; firm; few faint clay films; 20 percent limestone and siltstone fragments; neutral; gradual smooth boundary. (0 to 30 inches thick)
C--52 to 70 inches; brown (7.5YR 4/4) gravelly silty clay loam; common fine distinct pale brown (10YR 6/3) and common fine faint reddish brown (5YR 4/4) mottles; massive; firm; 30 percent limestone and siltstone fragments; neutral.
TYPE LOCATION: Carter County, Kentucky on a south facing foot slope northwest of the community of Carter; 500 feet northwest of the intersection of Kentucky Highways 2 and 474 and 950 feet northwest of the confluence of Buffalo Creek and Smith Creek; 38 degrees, 25 minutes, 54 seconds N. latitude and 83 degrees, 07 minutes, 20 seconds W. Longitude; USGS Tygarts Valley Quadrangle.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness ranges from 40 to more than 80 inches. Depth to soft shale or siltstone is more than 40 inches. Limestone, siltstone, and sandstone fragments from 2 mm to 15 inches or more in diameter range from 0 to 25 percent to a depth of about 40 inches and from 0 to 40 percent below 40 inches. These fragments may consist of gravel, cobbles, channers or flagstones. Reaction ranges from very strongly acid to slightly alkaline.
The A horizon has hue of 10YR or 7.5YR, value of 3 or 4, and chroma of 2 to 4. It is silt loam, silty clay loam or loam, but ranges to fine sandy loam or sandy loam in pedons directly below sandstone rock outcrops.
The B horizon has hue of 10YR to 5YR, value of 4 or 6, and chroma of 3 to 8. It is clay loam, silty clay loam, silty clay, or clay.
The C horizon has colors and textures similar to the lower B horizon.
Some pedons have 2BC or 2C horizons below a depth of about 3 feet with lithochromic mottles in shades of brown, gray, or red weathered from clay shale
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Beasley, Bonnell, Bucklick, Caneyville, Cosperville, Eden, Enott, Estate, Faywood, Fredonia, Haggatt, Heverlo, Kewaunee, Lowell, Markland, Milton, Mountpleasant, Muncie, Solway (I) and Vandalia series in the same family. Series that were formerly in the same family but have not been assigned CEC activity class include Brashear, Donahue, Elba, Heitt, Jessup, Shrouts and Woodsfield. Beasley, Caneyville, Eden, Elba, Enott, Faywood, Fredonia, Heitt, Heverlo, Kewaunee, Markland, Milton, Solway and Shrouts soils have sola less than 40 inches thick or depth to bedrock less than 40 inches. Bonnell and Jessup soils formed in a thin layer of loess and underlying glacial till. Brashear soils have redoximorphic depletions in shades of gray at 10 to 20 inches below the top of the argillic horizon and have a water table at 3 to 6 feet. Bucklick, Haggatt and Woodsfield soils formed in a silty mantle over underlying clayey materials or residuum. Cosperville, Mountpleasant and Muncie soils formed on till plains underlain by sandy outwash. Estate soils formed in loamy residuum weathered from interbedded sandstone and limestone. Lowell soils formed in residuum. Vandalia soils have hues of 2.5YR in the solum and substratum.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Steep colluvial foot slopes and hillsides. Slopes range from 5 to 60 percent. These soils formed in colluvium weathered from mixed limestone, siltstone, sandstone and shale and often exhibit slippage or mass wasting, moving downslope in large blocks over underlying materials. Near the type location the mean annual precipitation is about 48 inches and the mean annual temperature is about 55 degrees F.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Berks, Caneyville, Carpenter, Cranston, Donahue, Helechawa, Latham, Renox, Rigley and Shelocta series. Berks, Caneyville, Donahue, and Latham soils have are less than 40 inches deep to bedrock. Carpenter, Renox and Shelocta soils are fine-loamy. Cranston, Helechawa and Rigley soils are coarse-loamy.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. Runoff class is high on slopes less than 20 percent and very high on steeper slopes. Permeability is moderately slow in the solum and moderately slow or slow in the substratum.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are in woodland with some areas cleared for pasture. Woods are of mixed hardwoods.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The outer rim of the Eastern Kentucky Coalfields and the Ridge and Valley Section of upper east Tennessee. The extent is moderate.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Carter County, Kentucky; 1980.
REMARKS: The 12/97 revision placed Bledsoe soils in an active CEC activity class. Class placement based on S81KY-109-2 (0.41 ratio) and similar soils. The 11/2000 revision added 5YR hues to the RIC of the B and C horizons and fine sandy loam and sandy loam textures to the surface and subsurface horizons. Competing series were also updated. The upper slope range was increased from 60 to 80 percent to facilitate correlation of Bledsoe in Knott and Letcher Counties, KY.
Diagnostic horizons in the pedon are:
Ochric epipedon: 0 to 14 inches, A and BA horizons.
Argillic horizon: 14 to 35 inches, Bt1, Bt2, Bt3 horizons.
MLRA(s): 125 and 128
Revised: 9/92-JAK,WHC; 8/95-JAK,WHC; 12/97-DHK; 11/2000-DHK
ADDITIONAL DATA: Characterization data from pedon S81KY-109-2 by the University of Kentucky.