LOCATION BLUESTERS OR
Established Series
Rev. WMF/TDT
09/2011
BLUESTERS SERIES
The Bluesters series consists of shallow and moderately deep to cinders, excessively drained soils on cinder cones. They formed in ash and cinders. Slopes are 15 to 50 percent. The mean annual precipitation is about 26 inches and the mean annual temperature is about 43 degrees F.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Ashy over pumiceous or cindery, glassy, frigid Humic Vitrixerands
TYPICAL PEDON: Bluesters gravelly ashy sandy loam - woodland, on a 35 percent convex, east-facing slope at 3400 foot elevation. (When described (10/28/85), soil was moist to 10 inches and dry below. Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise noted.)
A1--0 to 4 inches; dark brown (10YR 3/3) gravelly ashy sandy loam, dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) dry; weak fine granular structure; slightly hard, friable, nonsticky and nonplastic; common fine and medium and many very fine roots; many very fine irregular pores; 20 percent angular gravel; neutral (pH 7.0); gradual wavy boundary.
A2--4 to 16 inches; dark brown (7.5YR 3/2) gravelly ashy sandy loam, brown (7.5YR 5/4) dry; weak fine granular structure; slightly hard, friable, nonsticky and nonplastic; common very fine and few fine, medium and coarse roots; many very fine irregular pores; 30 percent angular gravel; neutral (pH 7.0); clear wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of the A horizon is 10 to 20 inches)
2C--16 to 60 inches; black (N 2/0) and dark reddish brown (5YR 3/4) moist and dry, cinders; common very fine and few fine, medium, and coarse roots; many fine vesicular pores; neutral (pH 7.0).
TYPE LOCATION: Deschutes County, Oregon; on the east side of Henkle Butte, 2106 feet east and 135 feet north of the southwest corner of section 24, T. 14 S., R. 10 E. (Latitude 44 degrees, 20 minutes, 8 seconds N, Longitude 121 degrees, 29 minutes, 8 seconds W)
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The soil moisture control section is intermittently moist and is dry in all parts of the soil moisture control section for 45 to 110 days. The mean annual soil temperature is 43 to 47 degrees F. Depth to bedrock is greater than 60 inches. Depth to cinders is 14 to 30 inches. Reaction is neutral. The mollic epipedon is 10 to 20 inches thick. Some pedons have a C horizon which can be up to 10 inches thick.
The A horizon has hue of 7.5YR and 10YR, value of 2 or 3 moist, 4 or 5 dry and chroma of 2 or 3 moist, or 2 to 5 dry. Texture of the fine-earth fraction is ashy sandy loam, ashy loamy sand, or ashy loamy coarse sand. It contains 0 to 35 percent basaltic gravel-size cinders and 10 to 20 percent pumice sand (0.5 to 2.0 millimeters). It contains 50 to 80 percent volcanic glass and glass-coated aggregates. Phosphate retention is 40 to 70 percent. The acid oxalate extractable aluminum plus one-half the acid oxalate extractable iron is 0.40 to 1.0 percent. Field estimated clay content is 5 to 15 percent. Base saturation is 80 to 100 percent.
The AC horizon,when present, has hue of 7.5YR, value of 3 or 4 moist, 5 or 6 moist dry and chroma of 2 to 4 moist and dry. Texture of the fine-earth fraction is ashy loamy sand or ashy loamy coarse sand and contains 0 to 35 percent gravel-size cinders.
The C horizon, when present, has hue of 7.5YR or 5YR, value of 3 to 5 moist, 4 to 6 dry and chroma of 4 to 5 moist and dry. Texture of the fine-earth fraction is ashy coarse sand and contains 10 to 45 percent gravel-size cinders.
The 2C horizon has hue of 5YR, 7.5YR, 10YR. It has value of 2 through 7 moist and dry and chroma of 0 to 4 moist and dry. It contains 80 to 100 percent cinders which are 50 to 90 percent gravel size and 10 to 50 percent cobble size.
COMPETING SERIES: This is the
Alukwatwatam (T) series.
Alukwatwatam soils - has ochric epipedon; greater than 60 inches to paralithic contact (weathered cinders and saprolitic basalt); has cambic horizon.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: The Bluesters soils are on cinder cones at elevations of 3,000 to 5,100 feet. These soils formed in ash and cinders. The climate is characterized by cold, wet winters and hot, dry summers. The mean annual precipitation is 12 to 40 inches, falling mostly as snow. The mean annual temperature is 41 to 47 degrees F. The frost-free period is 30 to 90 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: This is the
Laidlaw soil. Laidlaw soils are on volcanic uplands and have less than 35 percent rock fragments in the substratum.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Excessively drained; moderately rapid over very rapid permeability.
USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are used for livestock grazing, wildlife habitat, recreation, and watershed. Potential native vegetation is western juniper, ponderosa pine, antelope bitterbrush, mountain big sagebrush and Idaho fescue; where precipitation is above 20 inches Douglas-fir, grand fir, pinegrass, starflower, chinkapin, common snowberry and snowbrush ceanothus dominate the plant community.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Cinder cones east of the Cascades in central Oregon; MLRA 6. The series is not extensive.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Portland, Oregon
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Deschutes County (Upper Deschutes River Area), Oregon, 1992.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features in the pedon are:
mollic epipedon - the zone from the surface of the soil to a depth of 16 inches (A1, A2 horizons).
andic soil properties - the zone from 0 to 16 inches. Based on laboratory data from the similar Wanoga series, S86OR-017-001. P-retention is about 60 percent. The glass and glass-coated aggregate in the very fine sand fraction is about 70 percent. Acid oxalate aluminum plus one-half the acid oxalate iron is about 0.45 percent. The 15-bar water on both dried and undried samples is less than 10 percent.
The upper ash mantle is a deposit from Mt. Mazama.
National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.