LOCATION CHILHOWIE VA+WVEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Very-fine, mixed, semiactive, mesic Typic Hapludalfs
TYPICAL PEDON: Chilhowie silty clay, on a 10 percent slope in a rocky pasture. (Colors are for moist soil.)
Ap--0 to 5 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) silty clay; moderate medium granular structure; firm, slightly sticky, plastic; common fine roots; common worm casts and channels; neutral; clear wavy boundary. (0 to 10 inches thick)
Bt--5 to 13 inches; strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) clay; moderate fine subangular blocky structure; very firm, very sticky, plastic; few fine roots; few fine pores; few distinct clay films on faces of peds; few oxide concretions up to 2 mm in size; common worm casts and channels; neutral; abrupt irregular boundary. (6 to 26 inches thick)
C--13 to 25 inches; strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) extremely channery clay; the fine-earth part of this horizon occurs along shale and limestone interfaces; massive; firm, sticky, plastic; few fine roots between fragments; 75 percent shale and limestone channers and flags; strongly effervescent; moderately alkaline; gradual wavy boundary. (0 to 15 inches thick)
R--25 inches; hard interbedded shale and limestone; strongly effervescent.
TYPE LOCATION: Rockingham County, Virginia; 4 miles southwest of New Market, 1 mile southeast of intersection of U.S. 11 and county road 796, 1,700 feet west of intersection of county roads 796 and 620.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness ranges from 10 to 30 inches. Depth to hard bedrock is 20 to 40 inches. Content of limestone and shale fragments ranges from 0 to 35 percent throughout the solum and from 25 to 80 percent in the C horizon. The soil ranges from slightly acid to moderately alkaline in the solum and from neutral to moderately alkaline and strongly effervescent in the C horizon.
The A or Ap horizon has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 3 or 4, and chroma of 2 through 4. It is silty clay loam, silty clay, or clay in the fine-earth fraction.
The Bt horizon has hue of 5YR through 10YR, value of 4 through 6, and chroma of 3 through 8. High chroma mottles are present in some pedons. It is clay or silty clay in the fine-earth fraction.
The BC horizon, where present, has hue of 5YR through 10YR, value of 4 through 6, and chroma of 3 through 8. It is silty clay or clay in the fine-earth fraction.
The C horizon, where present, has hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 4 through 6, and chroma of 4 through 8. It is silty clay or clay in the fine-earth fraction.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Bardley, Carbo, Endcav, Gatewood, and Oshkosh series in the same family. Endcav and Oshkosh soils do not have hard bedrock within 40 inches. Gatewood, Bardley, and Carbo soils have a thicker solum. Bardley soils are also redder than 5YR in the Bt horizon.
The Bland, Dandridge, Eden, Edom, Opequon, Pisgah, and Talbott series are similar soils in related families. Bland, Edom, Pisgah, and Talbott soils have a thicker solum than Chilhowie. In addition, they have less than 60 percent clay content in the particle-size control section. Dandridge soils have a clayey-skeletal particle-size control section. Eden soils average less than 60 percent clay in the particle-size control section. Opequon soils have a lithic contact within 20 inches. Talbott soils have a thermic temperature regime.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Chilhowie soils are nearly level to very steep upland soils in the Appalachian Ridges and Valleys. Slopes are dominantly 2 to 25 percent but range from 0 to 60 percent. These soils formed in materials weathered from interbedded shale and limestone that is strongly effervescent. The bedrock commonly is "tipped" or in a vertical position. Mean annual temperature ranges from 50 to 57 degrees F, and mean annual precipitation ranges from 36 to 44 inches.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These include the competing Bland, Carbo, Dandridge, Edom, Endcav, Opequon, and Pisgah soils and the Frederick, Hagerstown, Oaklet, and Swimley soils which have a thicker solum and a greater depth to hard rock than the Chilhowie soils.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained; medium to very rapid surface runoff; slow permeability.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most of the acreage is cleared of trees and is used for growing small grain or pasture grasses.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Limestone Valleys in Virginia and West Virginia. The series is of moderate extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Smyth County, Virginia, 1938.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and other features recognized in this pedon are:
a. Ochric epipedon - the zone between 0 and 5 inches (Ap horizon). b. Argillic horizon - the zone between 5 and 13 inches (Bt horizon). c. Base saturation - greater than 60 percent at the surface of the limestone bedrock.
d. Lithic contact at 25 inches.
The 10/2005 revision updates this soil to the 9th Edition of the Keys to Soil Taxonomy (2003). CEC class based on NASIS data from Rockingham County, Virginia. Competing series, pedon description (including horizon nomenclature and/or descriptive terms), and other sections on the OSD were not revised.
SIR = VA00487, VA0104 (GRAVELLY)
MLRA = 128, 147
REVISED 10/21/2005