LOCATION COPAKE CT+ MA NY VTEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy over sandy or sandy-skeletal, mixed, semiactive, mesic Dystric Eutrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Copake fine sandy loam, on a 4 percent slope in a cornfield. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise noted.)
Ap--0 to 6 inches; dark brown (10YR 3/3) fine sandy loam, pale brown (10YR 6/3) dry; weak fine granular structure; friable; common very fine and fine roots; 10 percent gravel; neutral; gradual wavy boundary. (6 to 10 inches thick)
AB--6 to 13 inches; dark olive brown (2.5Y 3/3) gravelly fine sandy loam, pale brown (10YR 6/3) dry; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine and very fine roots; 15 percent gravel; slightly acid; clear smooth boundary. (0 to 8 inches thick)
Bw1--13 to 21 inches; dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) gravelly fine sandy loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common very fine and fine roots; 25 percent gravel; slightly acid; gradual smooth boundary.
Bw2--21 to 31 inches; dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) gravelly fine sandy loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; few very fine and fine roots; 20 percent gravel; neutral; abrupt smooth boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bw horizons is 14 to 34 inches.)
2C1--31 to 56 inches; dark brown (10YR 3/3) coarse sand; single grain; loose; 40 percent fine gravel; neutral; abrupt smooth boundary.
2C2--56 to 65 inches; olive brown (2.5Y 4/3) fine sand; single grain; loose; 5 percent gravel; slightly effervescent; slightly alkaline; abrupt smooth boundary.
2C3--65 to 75 inches; olive brown (2.5Y 4/3) gravelly sand; single grain; loose; 15 percent gravel; slightly effervescent; slightly alkaline; abrupt smooth boundary.
2C4--75 to 80 inches; olive brown (2.5Y 4/3) gravelly fine sand; single grain; loose; 15 percent gravel; slightly effervescent; moderately alkaline.
TYPE LOCATION: Litchfield County, Connecticut; town of Salisbury, 1.5 miles north along Route 41 from the New York state line at Amenia Union, NY, 500 feet northeast of Bollen District Cemetery, and 150 feet east of Route 41, USGS Ellsworth topographic quadrangle; Latitude 41 degrees 50 minutes 31 seconds N., longitude 73 degrees 29 minutes 27 seconds W. NAD 1927.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum ranges from 20 to 40 inches and typically corresponds to the depth to sand and gravel. Rock fragments range from 5 to 35 percent by volume in the solum and from 5 to 70 percent in the substratum. The weighted average in the substratum is more than 20 percent. Typically, 75 percent or more of the rock fragments is rounded gravel. Reaction ranges from very strongly acid to neutral in the A horizon, strongly acid to neutral in the B horizon, and slightly acid to moderately alkaline in the 2C horizon. At least one subhorizon of the B ranges from moderately acid to neutral. Depth to carbonates is greater than 40 inches.
The Ap horizon has hue of 7.5YR to 2.5Y, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 2 to 4. Dry value is 6 or more. Undisturbed pedons have a thin A horizon with value of 2 or 3 and chroma of 1 to 3. The Ap or A horizon is silt loam, loam, or fine sandy loam in the fine-earth fraction. It has weak or moderate granular structure and is friable or very friable.
The Bw horizon has hue of 7.5YR to 5Y, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 3 to 8. It is silt loam, loam, or fine sandy loam in the fine-earth fraction and has less than 50 percent fine or coarser sand. The Bw horizon has weak granular or weak subangular blocky structure, or it is massive. Consistence is friable or very friable.
The 2C horizon has hue of 7.5YR to 5Y, value of 3 to 6, and chroma of 2 to 6. Texture ranges from loamy fine sand to coarse sand in the fine-earth fraction.
COMPETING SERIES: There are no other series currently in the same family.
The Agawam, Alton, Branford, Chenango, Groton, Hartford, Haven, Hero, Hoosic, Merrimac, Riverhead, Tunkhannock, Wappinger, and Warwick series are similar soils in related families. Agawam, Branford, Haven, and Riverhead soils have less than 60 percent base saturation. Alton, Chenango, Tunkhannock, and Warwick soils are loamy-skeletal. Groton and Hoosic soils are sandy-skeletal. Hartford and Merrimac soils have a sandy particle-size control section. Hero soils have redoximorphic depletions within a depth of 24 inches from the surface. Wappinger soils have an irregular decrease in organic carbon with depth.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Copake soils are nearly level to very steep and are on outwash plains, terraces, kames, eskers, and moraines. Slope ranges from 0 to 60 percent. The soils formed in a loamy mantle over sandy and gravelly glaciofluvial materials derived mainly from schist, limestone, gneiss, and dolomite. Mean annual temperature ranges from 46 to 50 degrees F., mean annual precipitation commonly is 40 to 50 inches but the range includes 36 to 50 inches, and the growing season ranges from 120 to 180 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Agawam, Amenia, Dover, Farmington, Fredon, Georgia, Groton, Hadley, Halsey, Hero, Hoosic, Merrimac, Mudgepond (T), Nellis, Pittsfield, Stockbridge, and Winooski soils on nearby landscapes. The excessively drained Groton, moderately well drained Hero, somewhat poorly and poorly drained Fredon, and very poorly drained Halsey soils are associated in a drainage sequence. Amenia, Dover, Farmington, Georgia, Mudgepond, Nellis, Pittsfield, and Stockbridge soils formed in till derived dominantly from limestone and are on nearby uplands. Hadley and Winooski soils are on flood plains.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. Surface runoff is negligible to high. Permeability is moderate or moderately rapid in the solum and rapid or very rapid in the substratum.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are in cultivated crops, hay, or pasture. Common crops are silage corn and grass-legume hay. Some areas are wooded or in community development. Common trees are red, white, and black oak, white pine, beech, black birch, sugar maple, and white ash. Gravel commonly is excavated from areas of these soils.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Glaciofluvial landforms in western Connecticut, western Massachusetts, eastern and central New York, and western Vermont; dominantly MLRA 144A but includes a small acreage in the eastern part of MLRA 101 in New York. The series is of moderate extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Columbia County, New York, 1923.
REMARKS: This revision reflects a new typical pedon and general updating. Cation exchange activity class placement was based upon a review of limited data and similar and associated soils.
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
1. Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 13 inches (A and AB horizons).
2. Cambic horizon - the zone from 13 to 31 inches (Bw horizons).
3. Strongly contrasting particle-size classes - the weighted average of the control section is coarse-loamy above a depth of 31 inches and is sandy-skeletal below 31 inches with the coarse-loamy part containing less than 50 percent fine sand or coarser (Bw1, Bw2, Bw3, and 2C1 horizons).
4. Dystric Eutrudepts feature - the base saturation is greater than 60 percent in the 10 to 30 inch depth (Bw1 and Bw2 horizons).