LOCATION CAPITAN CAEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, superactive, thermic, shallow Entic Haploxerolls
TYPICAL PEDON: Capitan cobbly clay loam, annual grasses. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise noted).
A11--0 to 9 inches; gray (10YR 5/1) cobbly clay loam, very dark gray (10YR 3/1) when moist; moderate, fine and medium, granular structure; hard, friable, sticky and slightly plastic; common fine roots; many very fine interstitial pores; 25 percent by volume of coarse fragments, 75 percent of fragments 3 to 10 inches in diameter and 25 percent less than 3 inches in diameter; violently effervescent with disseminated lime; moderately alkaline (pH 8.0); clear, wavy boundary. (4 to 10 inches thick)
A12--9 to 17 inches; gray (10YR 5/1) very cobbly clay loam, very dark gray (10YR 3/1) when moist; moderate, fine and medium, granular structure; hard, friable, sticky and slightly plastic; many very fine roots; many very fine and fine interstitial pores; 50 percent by volume coarse fragments, about 65 percent of fragments 3 to 10 inches in diameter and 35 percent less than 3 inches in diameter; violently effervescent with disseminated lime; moderately alkaline (pH 8.0); abrupt, wavy boundary. (6 to 12 inches thick)
Cr--17 to 30 inches; white (10YR 8/1) conglomerate shale with many hard limestone cobbles and pebbles intermixed with soft marly shale.
TYPE LOCATION: Santa Barbara County, California; one mile west of El Capitan State Beach and 2,000 feet north of U.S. Highway 101 on edge of oil field access road.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Depth to paralithic contact is 4 to 18 inches. The mean annual soil temperature is 59 to 62 degrees F and usually the soil temperature is not below 47 degrees F at any time. The soil below a depth of about 5 inches usually is dry all of the time from May until November or early December and usually is moist all the rest of the year. Fragments of conglomerate or calcareous shale average 35 to 65 percent of the volume of the soil profile.
The A horizon is gray or dark gray and has chroma of less than 2. It is clay loam or silty clay loam. This horizon has 2 to 4 percent organic matter. It has moderate or strong granular structure. The A horizon rests directly on soft calcareous conglomerate or shale.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Lopez, Crow Hill, Lodo, Maymen and Santa Lucia series. Lopez soils are noncalcareous. Crow Hill and Santa Lucia soils have lithic or paralithic contacts at depths of 24 to 40 inches. Lodo soils have less than 35 percent rock fragments. Maymen soils have an ochric epipedon and an annual soil temperature of less than 59 degrees F.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Capitan soils are moderately steep to very steep at elevations of 50 to 1,500 feet. The climate is dry subhumid mesothermal with cool to warm rainless but foggy summers near the coast and cool moist winters. The mean annual precipitation is 16 to 20 inches. The average January temperature is 48 to 52 degrees F, the average July temperature is 63 to 68 degrees F and the mean annual temperature is 59 to 62 degrees F. The annual frost-free season is 300 to 330 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the competing Lopez and Santa Lucia soils and the Agueda, Ayar, Diablo and Linne soils. Agueda soils are more than 40 inches deep and lack a skeletal profile. Ayar and Diablo soils are Vertisols. Linne soils are 24 to 40 inches deep.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well to somewhat excessively drained; rapid to very rapid runoff; moderate permeability.
USE AND VEGETATION: Used for range and watershed. Vegetation is mostly purple sage, annual grasses and scattered forbs.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Capitan soils occur in the south coastal part of the Coast Range in California. These soils are moderately extensive.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Davis, California
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Santa Barbara County, California, South Coastal Part, 1974.
REMARKS: The Capitan soils would have been classified as Lithosols. The Capitan series is was established to include soils that were mapped as a calcareous variant of Lopez soils and was formerly named Zaca stony soils, undifferentiated.
Last revised by the state on 9/74.