LOCATION BURKITTSVILLE      MD
Established Series
CER, JSK
05/2009

BURKITTSVILLE SERIES


MLRA(s): 130A
Depth Class: Very Deep
Drainage Class (Agricultural): Well Drained
Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity Class: Moderately High to Moderately Low
Permeability Class (Obsolete): Moderate to Slow
Landscape: Mountains
Parent Material: Gneiss
Slope: 0 to 15 percent
Mean Annual Air Temperature (Type Location): 12 degrees C (54 degrees F)
Mean Annual Precipitation (Type Location): 1041 mm (41 inches)

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Ultic Hapludalfs

TYPICAL PEDON: Burkittsville loam, 3 to 8 percent slopes in a cultivated field at an elevation of 600 feet. (Colors are for moist soil).

Ap-- 0 to 25 cm (0 to 10 inches); dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) loam; moderate medium granular structure in upper part and weak medium platy in lower part; friable; many fine roots; 5 percent quartzite and granitic gneiss pebbles; slightly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (12 to 30 cm) (5 to 12 inches thick)

Btl-- 25 to 46 cm (10 to 18 inches); strong brown (7.5YR 4/6) clay loam; moderate medium and fine subangular blocky structure; firm; common fine roots; common, fine tubular pores; many distinct yellowish red (5YR 4/6) clay films on faces of peds and lining pores; neutral; clear smooth boundary.

Bt2-- 46 to 89 cm (18 to 35 inches); strong brown (7.5YR 5/8) loam; common fine and medium distinct brownish yellow (10YR 6/6) and yellow (10YR 7/6) lithochromic mottles; weak and moderate coarse subangular blocky structure; firm; common fine roots; common fine tubular pores; many distinct yellowish red (5YR 4/6) clay films on faces of peds and lining pores; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bt horizon is 25 to 75 cm) (10 to 30 inches).

BC-- 89 to 150 cm (35 to 59 inches); yellow (10YR 7/6), brown (7.5YR 4/3) and strong brown (7.5YR 5/8) coarse sandy loam; weak, medium and thick platy structure; friable; few fine roots; common medium tubular pores; many distinct yellowish red (5YR 4/6) clay films lining pores and few on faces of peds; very strongly acid; gradual smooth boundary. (12 to 75 cm) (5 to 30 inches thick)

CB-- 150 to 208 cm (59 to 82 inches); light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4), dark brown (7.5YR 3/3) and strong brown (7.5YR 5/8) coarse sandy loam; weak medium platy structure (inherited); friable; few distinct yellowish red (5YR 4/6) clay films on faces of peds; very strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (0 to 75 cm) (0 to 30 inches)

C-- 208 to 330 cm (82 to 130 inches); variegated light gray (5Y 7/1), yellowish red (5YR 5/8), strong brown (7.5YR 5/8) and reddish yellow (7.5YR 6/8) coarse sandy loam; moderate thick platy structure (inherited); friable; common distinct black (N 2/0) manganese stains; very strongly acid.

TYPE LOCATION: Frederick County, Maryland; located about 200 feet south of Brentland Road about 0.5 mile west of Petersville; Harpers Ferry topographic quadrangle; Latitude. 39 degrees 21 minutes 02 seconds N. Longitude. 77 degrees 37 minutes 48 seconds W.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:

Depth to top of the Argillic: 12 to 30 cm (5 to 12 inches)
Solum Thickness: 100 to 200 cm (40 to 80 inches)
Depth to Bedrock: Greater than 175 cm (72 inches)
Depth to Seasonal High Water Table: Greater than 175 cm (72 inches)
Rock Fragment content: 0 to 25 percent in the A and upper B horizons, 0 to 40 percent in the lower B horizon, and 0 to 75 percent in the C horizon.
Soil Reaction: very strongly acid to moderately acid throughout unless limed
Other Soil Features:

RANGE OF INDIDVIDUAL HORIZONS:

A or Ap horizon:
Color--hue of 7.5YR to 2.5Y, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 3 or 4
Texture (fine earth fraction)--loam or silt loam

BE or EB horizon, where present:
Color--hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 3 to 6
Texture (fine earth fraction)--dominantly loam, sandy loam, silt loam

Bt horizon:
Color--hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 4 to 8
Texture (fine earth fraction)--clay loam, loam or sandy clay loam. Silt content is typically less than 35 percent.

BC, CB, and C horizons:
Color--commonly multicolored with hue of 5YR to 5Y, value of 3 to 7, and chroma of 1 to 8. Sub-horizons of 5YR hue are in some pedons
Texture (fine earth fraction)--coarse sandy loam, loam, and loamy sand.

COMPETING SERIES:
Alanthus--formed from residuum from greenstone and metabasalt.
Athol--formed from sedimentary rocks.
Cateache--moderately deep soil.
Culleoka--moderately deep soil.
Door--has a mollic epipedon
Duffield--formed from sedimentary rocks.
Dumfries--formed in feldspathic sediments on the coastal plain.
Ebbing--seasonal high water table within the control section.
Frondorf--moderately deep soil.
Grayford--formed from sedimentary rocks.
Hayter--formed from sedimentary rocks
Kell--formed from glacial till and glacial drift material.
Lamotte--formed from sedimentary rocks.
Legore--formed from diabase, diorite or related rocks.
Loudounville--moderately deep soil.
Manassas--formed from sedimentary rocks.
Mechanicsburg--glacially influenced in the upper horizons.
Middleburg--form in colluvial positions with local alluvial influence.
Morrison--formed from sedimentary rocks.
Myersville--formed from greenstone.
Oatlands--moderately deep soil.
Panorama--formed from red Triassic age rocks.
Sowego--formed from Triassic age rocks in colluvial positions.
Spriggs--moderately deep soil.
Sudley--formed from sandstone and conglomerate of Triassic age.
Westmoreland--formed from sedimentary rocks.
Wheeling--formed from sedimentary rocks.
Williamsburg--formed from sedimentary rocks.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING:
Landscape: Mountains and Hills
Landform: Mountain and Hill slopes
Geomorphic Component: Crest, Sideslope
Hillslope Profile Position: Summit, Shoulder, Backslope
Parent Material: Residuum from Gneiss
Slope: 0 to 15 percent
Elevation: 120 to 305 meters (400 to 1000 feet)
Frost Free Period: 140 - 180 days
Mean Annual Air Temperature: 10 to 14 degrees C (50 to 57 degrees F)
Mean Annual Precipitation: 960 to 1112 mm (38 to 44 inches)

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS:
Myersville--formed from greenstone.
Catoctin--do not have an Argillic horizon and are skeletal.
Lantz--have a Mollic Epipedon.
Mt. Zion--aquic conditions in the lower part of the solum and occur on footslopes.
Rohrersville--have a fragipan.
Spoolsville--do not have an Argillic horizon and are coarse-loamy.

DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY:
Drainage Class (Agricultural): Well drained
Internal Free Water Occurrence: Very Deep
Index Surface Runoff: Slow to Medium
Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity: Moderately High to High
Permeability Class (Obsolete): Moderate in the upper part of the solum and Moderately Slow to Slow in the lower part of the solum and substratum.
Shrink-swell Potential: low
Flooding Frequency and Duration: None
Ponding Frequency and Duration: None

USE AND VEGETATION:
Major Uses: mostly for cropland, hay and pasture. To an increasing extent, home sites
Dominant Vegetation: Where Cultivated--corn, soybean, small grain, alfalfa hay. Where Wooded--Northern Red Oak and Hickory

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Distribution: Maryland
Extent: Small

MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Frederick County, Maryland, August 1997.The name Burkittsville is taken from a small community in the area.

REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features in this pedon include:
Ochric epipedon - from a depth of 0 to 10 inches (Ap horizon).
Argillic horizon - from a depth of 10 to 35 inches (Btl and Bt2 horizons).
Paralithic contact below a depth of 60 inches.

Burkittsville soils were formerly included with the Myersville and Fauquier soils in the 1960 Frederick County soil survey.

ADDITIONAL DATA: Particle size, bulk density, chemical and mineralogical analyses available on pedon S86MD021-1 and PSA on Ap and Bt horizons of pedon S97MD021-1 from University of Maryland Soil Characterization Lab.


National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.