LOCATION CASCADECREEK            AK

Established Series
SAS/MPS
02/2022

CASCADECREEK SERIES

Landscape--hills, mountains
Landform--hillslopes, mountain slopes
Slope--20 to 150 percent
Parent material--gravelly colluvium
Mean annual precipitation--about 475 mm
Mean annual air temperature--about -3 degrees C
Depth class--very deep
Drainage class--well drained
Soil moisture regime--udic
Soil temperature regime--cryic
Soil moisture subclass--typic

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, isotic Typic Dystrocryepts

TYPICAL PEDON: Cascadecreek silt loam on an east facing convex, linear shoulder, on a slope of 41 percent at an elevation of 270 m (The soil was moist throughout the profile when described on June 5, 2018.)

Oa--0 to 6 cm; highly decomposed plant material, dark gray (10YR 4/1) dry, black (10YR 2/1) moist; common very fine, fine and coarse roots; extremely acid (pH 3.8); clear smooth boundary

A--6 to 20 cm; highly organic silt loam, brown (7.5YR 4/2) dry, very dark brown (7.5YR 2.5/2) moist; moderate fine subangular blocky structure; friable, nonsticky, nonplastic; common very fine and fine roots; few fine irregular pores; 5 percent gravel; extremely acid (pH 4.0); clear smooth boundary

Bw--20 to 44 cm; gravelly silt loam, light yellowish brown (2.5Y 6/4) dry, olive brown (2.5Y 4/4) moist; moderate fine granular structure; very friable, nonsticky, nonplastic; common very fine and fine roots; 18 percent gravel; extremely acid (pH 4.2); clear smooth boundary

C--44 to 150 cm; extremely gravelly silt loam, light olive brown (2.5Y 5/3) dry, dark olive brown (2.5Y 3/3) moist; single grain; very friable, nonsticky, nonplastic; common very fine roots; 75 percent gravel; extremely acid (pH 4.1)

TYPE LOCATION: Nome Census Area, Alaska latitude 63.6598010 longitude -160.6665870 degrees, datum WGS84 (Coordinates determined with a GPS unit)

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:
Mean annual soil temperature--0 to 3 degrees C
Soil moisture control section--dry less than 45 consecutive days in June through October
Thickness of ochric epipedon--10 to 36 cm
Thickness of cambic horizon--15 to 55 cm

Particle Size Control Section:
*Clay--8 to 16 percent
*Total fragments--35 to 85 percent gravels, cobbles, channers
*Sodium fluoride pH--8.4 to 11.6
*Ratio of 1500 kPa water to measured clay--0.6 to 6.0

Oa horizon
Thickness--2 to 12 cm

A horizon
Hue--5YR, 7.5YR or 10YR
Value--2 to 3 moist, 4 or 5 dry
Chroma-1 to 4
Fine-earth texture--silt, silt loam
Clay--5 to 14 percent
Sand--6 to 30 percent
Organic carbon--8 to 12 percent
Total rock fragment content--5 to 15 percent
Total gravel content--3 to 15 percent
Total cobble content--0 to 10 percent
Total channer content--0 to 10 percent
Reaction--3.1 to 5.1
Thickness--4 to 18 cm

Bw horizon
Hue--10YR or 2.5Y
Value--3 or 4 moist, 5 or 6 dry
Chroma--2 to 4
Fine-earth texture--silt, silt loam
Clay--8 to 20 percent
Sand--15 to 50 percent
Organic carbon--2 to 5 percent
Total rock fragment content--15 to 40 percent
Total gravel content--5 to 40 percent
Total cobble content--0 to 30 percent
Total channer content--0 to 15 percent
Reaction--3.6 to 5.6
Thickness--15 to 55 cm

C horizon
Hue--10YR or 2.5Y
Value--3 to 5 moist, 5 to 7 dry
Chroma--2 to 4
Fine-earth texture--sandy loam, silt loam, loam
Clay--5 to 15 percent
Sand--35 to 70 percent
Organic carbon--0.2 to 1 percent
Total rock fragment content--35 to 75 percent
Total gravel content--30 to 75 percent
Total cobble content--0 to 20 percent
Total channer content--0 to 15 percent
Reaction--3.6 to 6.0

COMPETING SERIES:
* Kanguq--moderately deep to paralithic contact, colluvium over residuum
* Stuyahok--no channers present, no organic surface layer, drift parent material
* Sharp--deep to lithic contact
* Bensley--fibric organic surface layer, clay ranges 18 to 30 percent, glacial till parent material
* Endlich--moderatly deep to lithic contact, slope alluvium or colluvium derived from granite, andesite, rhyolite, breccia, or tuff
* Fallriver--glacial till and colluvium derived from granitic rocks, gneiss, and schist, albic horizon, 15 to 30 percent mica in particle-size control section
* Henson--slope alluvium, alluvium, and colluvium derived from andesite, rhyolite, breccia, or tuff, 18 to 35 percent clay in particle-size control section

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING:
*Elevation--50 to 850 m
*Climate--warm, moist summers; cold, dry winters
*Mean annual precipitation--385 to 550 mm
*Mean annual air temperature-- -5 to -1 degrees C
*Frost-free period--55 to 90 days

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS:
* Cuyaqsak--aquic conditions between 50 to 80 cm; swales on mountains and hills
* Nulatohills--andic soil properties present; hillslopes and mountain slopes
* Teacreek--folistic epipedon, clay ranges to 22 percent; backslopes of mountains and hills
*MountMcDonald--shallow to lithic contact; summits and shoulders of mountains
* Paugna--deep to paralithic contact; upper backslopes of mountains

DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY:
*Drainage class--well drained
*Saturation during normal years--none
*Saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat)--very high in the surface organic layer, high to moderately high throughout the rest of the profile

USE AND VEGETATION:
Use--wildlife habitat, recreation, subsistence
Potential native vegetation--bluejoint, Siberian alder, beaverd spirea, black crowberry, dwarf birch, stiff clubmoss, arctic starflower, spreading woodfern, moss, white spruce, marsh Labrador tea, bog blueberry, reindeer lichen, star reindeer lichen, knights plume moss, splendid feather moss, polytrichum moss, Schreber's big red stem moss, lingonberry, greygreen reindeer lichen, fireweed, tealeaf willow, sphagnum, arctic raspberry, woodland horsetail, western oakfern, Alaska wild rhubarb, common ladyfern

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Nulato Hills-Southern Seward Peninsula Highlands, Alaska; MLRA 240; moderate extent

SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (SSRO) RESPONSIBLE: WASILLA, ALASKA

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Nulato Hills BLM area, Nome Census Area, Alaska; 2021

REMARKS:
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon
*Particle-size control section--zone from 31 to 106 cm
*Ochric epipedon--zone from 0 to 20 cm
*Cambic horizon--zone from 20 to 44 cm

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National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.