LOCATION COVEDALE KYEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, active, mesic Typic Paleudults
TYPICAL PEDON: Covedale silt loam, on a south facing, convex 9 percent slope under alfalfa at an elevation of 840 feet. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise noted.)
Ap-- 0 to 7 inches; dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) silt loam, light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4) dry; weak fine subangular blocky structure parting to weak fine granular; friable; common fine roots; moderately alkaline (pH 8.0); clear smooth boundary. (2 to 7 inches)
Bt/A-- 7 to 10 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) and [Adark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) silty clay loam; weak fine and medium subangular blocky structure; firm; common fine roots; few faint clay films on faces of peds; moderately alkaline (pH 8.0); clear smooth boundary. (0 to 5 inches)
Bt1-- 10 to 28 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) silty clay loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; firm; few fine roots; less than 1 percent ironstone gravel; many distinct clay films on faces of peds; very strongly acid (pH 4.8); gradual smooth boundary (5 to 8 inches)
Bt2-- 28 to 44 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) silty clay loam; common fine and medium prominent light yellowish brown (2.5Y 6/3) lithochromic mottles; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; very firm; less than 1 percent ironstone gravel; many distinct clay films on faces of peds; very strongly acid (pH 4.5); clear smooth boundary. (6 to 16 inches)
Bt3-- 44 to 67 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6 and 5/8) silty clay loam; many medium faint light gray (10YR 7/2) lithochromic mottles; weak medium and moderate coarse subangular blocky structure; very firm; 1 percent ironstone and very strongly cemented black shale channers; common distinct clay films on faces of peds; very strongly acid (pH 4.5); gradual smooth boundary. (0 to 23 inches)
C-- 67 to 71 inches; light gray (10YR 7/2) and brownish yellow (10YR 6/8) silty clay; massive; very firm; 2 percent very strongly cemented black shale and ironstone channers; very strongly acid (pH 4.5). (0 to 45 inches)
TYPE LOCATION: Lewis County, Kentucky; located about 1.1 miles southeast of Carpenter Corners in Fleming County, about 0.5 miles northwest of Bowman Springs, 400 feet north of the North Fork of the Licking River which forms the Fleming-Lewis County line, and about 40 feet south of gravel road; USGS Burtonville quadrangle; lat. 38 degrees 25 minutes 45 seconds N. and long. 83 degrees 34 minutes 12 seconds W., NAD 27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:
Solum thickness: 40 to more than 70 inches.
Depth to bedrock: 60 to more than 96 inches.
Rock fragments: 0 to 15 percent gravel and channers in the Ap horizon and in the A and E horizons where present; 0 to 10 percent gravel and channers in the upper part of the Bt horizon; and up to 60 percent gravel and channers in the lower part of the Bt horizon and 2Bt and BC horizons, where present; and 2 to 60 percent channers in the C horizon. Weighted average of less than 15 percent rock fragments 0.1 mm to 3 inches in diameter in the particle-size control section.
Kind of rock fragments: Black fissile shale, sandstone, ironstone, and siltstone.
Reaction: Very strongly acid to extremely acid throughout. Where limed, the upper sola may range to moderately alkaline.
Clay content: 25 to 35 percent in the particle-size control section.
Soil moisture: the soils are usually moist, and they are dry for less than 45 consecutive days in all parts in the 4 months following the summer solstice.
Ap horizon:
Color--hue of 10YR; value of 3 to 5 moist, 5 to 8 dry; and chroma of 2 to 6 moist or dry
Fine-earth texture--silt loam
Structure--weak or moderately fine or medium, granular or subangular blocky
Moist consistence--very friable or friable.
A and E horizons (where present):
Color--hue of 10YR; value of 4 or 5 moist, 5 to 7 dry; and chroma of 3 to 6 moist, 2 to 6 dry
Fine-earth texture--silt loam or silty clay loam
Structure--weak or moderate, fine or medium, granular or subangular blocky
Moist consistence--friable.
Bt horizon:
Color--hue of 5YR to 10YR, (may have 2.5YR in lower part); Value of 4 to 6; and chroma of 4 to 8 (may have 2 in lower part)
Lithochromic mottles--in shades of red, yellow, brown, and gray
Fine-earth texture--silt loam, silty clay loam, silty clay, or clay
Structure--weak to strong, medium or coarse, subangular or angular blocky
Moist consistence--firm or very firm.
2Bt horizon (where present):
Color--hue of 2.5YR to 10YR; value of 4 to 6; and chroma of 2 to 8
Lithochromic mottles--in shades of brown, yellow, and gray
Structure, texture, and consistence are similar to the Bt horizon
C horizon or 2C horizon (where present):
Color--hue of 2.5YR to 5Y; value of 4 to 7; and chroma of 1 to 8
Lithochromic mottles--in shades of red, yellow, and gray
Fine-earth texture--silty clay or clay
Structure--massive (some pedons have weak, fine or platy)
Moist consistence--firm or very firm
Cr horizon:
Type of bedrock--layered, black, fissile shale bedrock that can be dug with difficulty with a spade.
COMPETING SERIES: The Branson series was formerly in the same family, but has not been updated to 8th Edition standards. The Branson series formed in old alluvium or a thin mantle of loess over alluvium or residuum of limestone.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: The Covedale soils are on side slopes, toe slopes, and foot slopes or uplands. Slopes range from 2 to 55 percent. Covedale soils formed in colluvium and/or residuum weathered from black fissile shale of the Ohio Shale Formation, Devonian Geologic System and from the Sunbury Formation, Mississippian Geologic System in Kentucky. Elevations are 560 to 1200 feet.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Colyer and Trappist soils. Colyer soils are shallow to black shale bedrock and have more than 35 percent coarse fragments in the control section. Trappist soils are moderately deep to black shale bedrock and have more than 35 percent clay in the control section.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. Permeability is moderately slow in the subsoil and slow in the substratum. Runoff class is medium on gentle slopes, high on strong and moderately steep slopes, and very high on steeper slopes.
USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are used primarily for timber production and wildlife habitat. Some gently sloping and sloping areas are in row crops, hayland, or pasture. Native vegetation is mixed hardwoods such a hickory, red maple, flowering dogwood, sourwood, American beech, and oak species.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Covedale soils are in the Knobs region of Kentucky (western rim of MLRA 125); possibly in southern Indiana (MLRA 122); and southeastern Ohio (MLRA 124). This series is moderately extensive (17,855 ac. in Lewis Co., KY).
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Lewis County, Kentucky, 1998. Source of name is a former school in northwestern Lewis County.
REMARKS: Covedale soils were proposed to fit the colluvial landforms that were previously mapped as Muse (fine). The 4/99 revision places Covedale soils in an active CEC activity class based on estimates from the SIR and from lab data. Rock fragment content ranges were also modified to better fit the fine-silty definition.
Diagnostic horizons and features in this pedon include:
Ochric epipedon - from a depth of 0 to 7 inches (Ap horizon).
Argillic horizon - from a depth of 7 to 67 inches (Bt/A, Bt1, Bt2, and Bt3 horizons).
Low pH and a base saturation of less than 35 percent at 125 cm below the upper boundary of the argillic horizon (Ultisol Soil Order).
Does not have lithic, paralithic, or petroferric contact within 150 cm of the mineral soil surface and does not have a clay increase with increasing depth of 20 percent or more (relative) from the maximum clay content (Paleudult Great Group).
ADDITIONAL DATA: Reference sample S-94-KY-135-39-(1-6) and mineralogy sample from T-90-KY-135-68-(9) by the University of Kentucky
MLRA: 124, 122, 125 SIR: KY0205
Revised: 10/95-SEJ,RDJ; 12/97-SEJ,DHK; 4/99-DHK