LOCATION DEZA NM+AZEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Sandy, mixed, frigid Lamellic Haplustalfs
TYPICAL PEDON: Deza sand -- on a footslope between ridges of a stable landslide, sloping 11 percent to the east at 8,500 feet elevation -- forest. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise noted.) The surface is covered with 1 inch of slightly decomposed pine needles and other forest litter.
A--0 to 4 inches; brown (7.5YR 5/3) sand, dark brown (7.5YR 3/2) moist; weak very coarse platy structure parting to moderate medium granular; soft, very friable, nonsticky and nonplastic; common very fine and fine and few medium roots; few very fine and fine tubular pores; 5 percent channers; moderately acid; clear wavy boundary. (4 to 8 inches thick)
E--4 to 16 inches; pinkish gray (7.5YR 6/2) sand, brown (7.5YR 5/3) moist; moderate coarse platy structure; soft, very friable, nonsticky and nonplastic; common very fine and fine and few coarse roots; few very fine and fine tubular pores; 5 percent channers and 5 percent gravel; slightly acid; clear wavy boundary. (12 to 20 inches thick)
E and Bt1--16 to 31 inches; pinkish gray (7.5YR 6/2) sand (E part), brown (7.5YR 5/3) moist, with reddish brown (5YR 5/4) loamy sand lamellae (Bt part), reddish brown (5YR 4/4) moist; massive; soft, very friable, nonsticky and nonplastic; common very fine and fine and few medium and coarse roots; few very fine and fine tubular pores; clay coatings on sand grains in two lamellae less than 0.5 inches thick; 5 percent channers and 5 percent gravel; slightly acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (15 to 24 inches thick)
E and Bt2--31 to 45 inches; pinkish gray (7.5YR 6/2) sand (E part), brown (7.5YR 5/3) moist, with reddish brown (5YR 5/4) loamy sand lamellae (Bt part) reddish brown (5YR 4/4) moist; massive; soft, very friable, nonsticky and nonplastic; common very fine and few fine and medium roots; few very fine and fine tubular pores; clay coatings on sand grains in four lamellae about 0.5 inches thick; 5 percent channers and 5 percent gravel; slightly acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (14 to 20 inches thick)
E and Bt3--45 to 62 inches; pinkish gray (7.5YR 6/2) sand (E part), brown (7.5YR 5/3) moist, with reddish brown (5YR 5/4) loamy sand lamellae (Bt part), reddish brown (5YR 4/4) moist; massive; soft, very friable, nonsticky and nonplastic; common very fine and few fine and medium roots; few very fine and fine tubular pores; clay coatings on sand grains in five lamellae about 1 inch thick; 5 percent gravel; neutral.
TYPE LOCATION: San Juan County, New Mexico; on the Navajo Indian Reservation about 7.5 miles south of Toadlena; 1,650 feet west and 200 feet south of the northeast corner of sec. 20, T.22N., R.19W.; Latitude 36 degrees 7 minutes 58 seconds N and Longitude 108 degrees 53 minutes 40 seconds W.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:
Soil moisture - Typically, the soil moisture control section (SMCS) is moist in all parts from January to May and intermittently moist in some part from June to December. The SMCS is dry in all parts less than 25 percent of the time when the soil temperature at 20 inches is above 41 degrees F. Typic ustic moisture regime.
Soil temperature - 41 to 45 degrees F.
Depth to top of Albic horizon - 4 to 8 inches
Depth to top of Argillic horizon - 28 to 38 inches (where lamellae are more than 1 cm thick)
Lamellae - Sum of thickness is 6 to 12 inches or more at depths above 80 inches
Silicate clay content, control section weighted average - 3 to 10 percent
Depth to seasonal high water table - occurs in some pedons at 5 to 6 feet
Reaction - medium acid in the surface to neutral in the subsoil
Rock fragments - contains up to 10 percent small channers or gravel in the particle-size control section
Organic matter - 1 to 3 percent in the surface
A horizon
Hue: 7.5YR, 10YR
Value: 3 through 6 dry, 2 through 5 moist
Chroma: 1 through 3, dry or moist
Texture: sand, loamy fine sand, fine sand
E horizon
Hue: 7.5YR, 10YR
Value: 5 through 7 dry, 3 through 7 moist
Chroma: 2 or 3, dry or moist
Texture: sand, fine sand, loamy fine sand
E and Bt or Bt and E horizons
Value: 5 through 7 dry, 4 through 7 moist
Chroma: 2 through 6, dry or moist
Texture: sand, fine sand in matrix (E part); with loamy sand or loamy fine sand in lamellae 0.5 to 3 inches thick (Bt part)
Other features: most pedons have upper subhorizons with few, very thin lamellae less than 0.5 inches thick
COMPETING SERIES: There are no competing series.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Deza soils are on toeslopes and footslopes of stable landslides and have slopes of 5 to 25 percent. These soils formed in alluvium derived from Tertiary sandstone. Elevations range from 8,000 to 9,000 feet. The mean annual precipitation is 18 to 24 inches. The mean annual air temperature is 39 to 43 degrees F. The frost-free period is 60 to 110 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Narbona and the Sandark soils. Narbona soils are loamy-skeletal, have sandy epipedons 20 to 40 inches thick, and occur on adjacent ridges of stable landslides and backslopes of escarpments. Sandark soils have a mollic epipedon and lack an argillic horizon.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Somewhat excessively drained; slow runoff; rapid permeability. A high water table is present in some pedons at depths of 5 to 6 feet between April and July, following the melting of winter snowpack.
USE AND VEGETATION: Deza soils are used for timber production and livestock grazing. Present vegetation is ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, and quaking aspen, with an understory of nodding bromegrass, earth sedge, western brackenfern, silvery lupine, mountain muhly, and Gambel oak.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Deza soils are of small extent on the Colorado Plateau in northwest New Mexico and northeast Arizona. LRR-D; MLRA 35.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Phoenix, Arizona
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Shiprock Area, Parts of San Juan County, New Mexico and Apache County, Arizona; 1993.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 16 inches (A and E horizons)
Albic horizon - the zone from 4 to 16 inches (E horizon)
Argillic horizon - the zone from 31 to about 62 inches where lamellae more than 1 cm thick collectively total a thickness of 6 inches or more (E and Bt2 and E and Bt3 horizons)
Soils classified according to Soil Taxonomy, Second Edition, 1999; Keys to Soil Taxonomy, Tenth Edition, 2006.
ADDITIONAL DATA: The original series type location in McKinley County, NM, was sampled for full characterization by the National Soil Survey Laboratory (NSSL) as pedon S85NM-031-010.
Updates and revisions for the correlation of Ft. Defiance Area (AZ715), February 2008, DWD.