LOCATION DUNAWAY NM
Established Series
Rev. AJM, WJG
04/2017
DUNAWAY SERIES
The Dunaway series consists of very deep, somewhat excessively drained soils that formed in sandy and gravelly alluvium. Dunaway soils occur on floodplain steps in mountain valley bottoms. Slope ranges from 1 to 8 percent. The mean annual precipitation is about 14 in and the mean annual air temperature is about 62 degrees F.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Sandy-skeletal, carbonatic, thermic Ustic Torrifluvents
TYPICAL PEDON: Dunaway extremely cobbly loamy sand -- in wilderness and national park land. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise noted.) There are 50 percent gravels, 20 percent cobbles, 10 percent stones and 2 percent boulders on the surface.
AC--0 to 9 cm (0.0 to 3.5 in); pale brown (10YR 6/3) extremely cobbly loamy sand, brown (10YR 5/3), moist; 90 percent sand; 4 percent clay; single grain; loose, loose, nonsticky, nonplastic; common fine and very fine roots and few medium roots; common medium vesicular and common very fine interstitial pores; 5 percent stones and 25 percent gravels and 40 percent cobbles; strong effervescence; slightly alkaline, pH 7.7; clear smooth boundary.
C1--9 to 87 cm (3.5 to 34.3 in); light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) extremely gravelly loamy coarse sand, dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2), moist; 95 percent sand; 3 percent clay; single grain; loose, loose, nonsticky, nonplastic; common very fine, fine, and medium roots and few coarse roots; common fine medium and coarse vesicular pores; 5 percent stones and 20 percent cobbles and 60 percent gravels; strong effervescence; slightly alkaline, pH 7.7; gradual wavy boundary.
C2--87 to 200 cm (34.3 to 78.7 in); very dark brown (10YR 2/2) extremely gravelly coarse sandy loam, dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2), moist; 90 percent sand; 6 percent clay; massive; very friable, soft, nonsticky, nonplastic; few fine and medium roots and common very fine roots; few fine and common medium and coarse vesicular pores; 10 percent stones and 25 percent cobbles and 50 percent gravels; strong effervescence; slightly alkaline, pH 7.6.
TYPE LOCATION: Eddy County, New Mexico; from the parking lot for Slaughter Canyon trailhead at the end of Hwy 418 in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, travel about .85 miles up the sometimes poorly marked Slaughter Canyon trail and then 30 yards to the east; Approximately 12 miles WSW of Whites City, USGS 7.5 minute Quadrangle: Grapevine Draw, New Mexico. UTM Zone13, 591633 3304608, NAD 83.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:
Soil Moisture: In normal years this soil is driest during May and June and moist in the upper part for up to 90 cumulative days during the growing season. The soil moisture regime is aridic bordering on ustic.
Soil Temperature: 61 to 64 degrees F
Particle size control section (weighted average)
Clay content: 1 to 15 percent
Sand content: 60 to 95 percent
Calcium carbonate content: 65 to 95 percent in fraction 20mm or finer
Rock fragments: 35 to 90 percent; 25 to 65 percent gravel, 10 to 40 percent cobbles, 0 to 10 percent stones, 0 to 5 percent boulders
A or AC horizons
Hue: 10YR
Value: 4 to 6, dry or moist
Chroma: 2 or 3, dry or moist
Texture of the fine-earth fraction: loamy sand, coarse sandy loam, loamy coarse sand and sandy loam
Rock fragment content: 55 to 85 percent total; 15 to 65 percent gravel; 10 to 35 percent cobbles; 0 to 5 percent stones; 0 to 1 percent boulders
Effervescence: strong to violent
Reaction: slightly alkaline or moderately alkaline
C horizons
Hue: 10YR
Value: 2 to 6 dry, 2 to 5 moist
Chroma: 2 or 3, dry or moist
Texture of the fine-earth fraction: loamy sand, coarse sand, coarse sandy loam, and loamy coarse sand
Rock fragment content: 55 to 90 percent total; 15 to 65 percent gravel; 10 to 40 percent cobbles; 0 to 10 percent stones; 0 to 5 percent boulders
Effervescence: strong to violent
Reaction: slightly alkaline or moderately alkaline
COMPETING SERIES: There are no competing series at this time. A similar soil is the
Chipotle (NM) series. Chipotle soils have mixed mineralogy and are formed in alluvium from volcanic parent materials.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Dunaway soils occur floodplain steps of mountain valley bottoms at elevations of 3,400 to 5,500 feet. Slope ranges from 0 to 8 percent. These soils formed in Holocene-age stratified sandy and gravelly alluvium derived from mostly limestone and dolomite with some other sedimentary rocks. The mean annual precipitation is 12 to 17 in, mostly occurring as high intensity rain during afternoon thunderstorms from July to September; mean annual air temperature is 60 to 64 degrees F. The frost-free period is 212 to 246 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are
Choza and
Pinery soils. Pinery soils formed on stream terraces, often in the same drainage as Dunaway soils. Pinery also forms on fan remnants, along with Choza soils. Choza is shallow to a petrocalcic horizon and Pinery is very deep with a well developed mollic epipedon.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Excessively drained. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is 1 to 100 m/second. Runoff is very low. Flash floods of very brief duration caused by rapid runoff from rainstorms in adjacent mountains are rare to common.
USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are used for recreation and wildlife habitat. Vegetation is characterized by the grasses: slim tridens, sideoats grama, halls panicum and little bluestem; and by the shrubs: sotol, apache plume, catclaw mimosa, mariola; and the mexican walnut tree.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: In the Guadalupe mountains region of southeastern New Mexico, MLRA 70D. The series is of moderate extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Phoenix, Arizona
SERIES PROPOSED: Eddy County, New Mexico; Soil survey of Carlsbad Caverns National Park; 2008.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon:
Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 5 in (A horizon)
Carbonatic mineralogy - the zone from 0 to 200cm
Classified according to Soil Taxonomy Second Edition, 1999; Keys to Soil Taxonomy, Twelfth Edition, 2014.
Revised for the correlation of Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico; October, 2016, NMS
National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.