LOCATION EAGLEYE NM+AZ COEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Clayey, mixed, superactive, nonacid, mesic, shallow Ustic Torriorthents
TYPICAL PEDON: Eagleye very channery clay loam--rangeland. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise noted. When first described, the soil was dry from the surface to the bedrock contact.)
A-- 0 to 2 inches; pale brown (10YR 6/3) very channery clay loam, brown (10YR 4/3) moist; moderate medium platy structure parting to moderate very fine granular; soft, friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; few very fine roots; common 0.25 to 0.5 inch wide cracks; 30 percent channers, 5 percent flagstones, and 5 percent boulders; slightly effervescent; slightly alkaline (pH 7.6); clear wavy boundary. (2 to 4 inches thick)
2Bw-- 2 to 8 inches; light yellowish brown (2.5Y 6/4) and gray (10YR 5/1) parachannery silty clay loam, light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) and dark gray (10YR 4/1) moist; moderate very coarse prismatic structure parting to weak very thick platy; hard, firm, moderately sticky and moderately plastic; few medium and fine and common very fine roots; common 0.25 to 0.5 inch wide cracks; 15 percent parachanners; slightly alkaline (pH 7.6); clear smooth boundary. (0 to 7 inches thick)
2Cy-- 8 to 18 inches; light brownish gray (2.5Y 6/2) and gray (10YR 5/1) extremely parachannery silty clay loam, grayish brown (2.5Y 5/2) and dark gray (10YR 4/1) moist; massive, platy rock structure; slightly hard, friable, moderately sticky and moderately plastic; few fine and common very fine roots; few 0.25 to 0.5 inch wide cracks; 60 percent parachanners; secondary gypsum crystals segregated in very few fine accumulations on rock fragments; slightly alkaline (pH 7.8); clear smooth boundary. (6 to 11 inches thick)
Cr-- 18 inches; fractured gray shale
TYPE LOCATION: San Juan County, New Mexico; on the Navajo Indian Reservation about 17 miles northeast of Shiprock and 200 feet west of the Navajo-Ute Mountain Indian Reservation boundary line; 650 feet north and 450 feet east of the southwest corner of sec. 16, T.32N., R.16W; Latitude 36 degrees 58 minutes 55 seconds N and Longitude 108 degrees 32 minutes 13 seconds W.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:
Soil moisture - Typically, the soil moisture control section is intermittently moist in some part from July to October and December to mid-April. Driest during May and June. Ustic aridic soil moisture regime.
Soil temperature: 48 to 55 degrees F.
Soil depth: 10 to 20 inches to soft shale
Silicate clay content, control section weighted average: 35 to 50 percent
Reaction: slightly to moderately alkaline
A horizon
Hue: 10YR, 2.5Y
Value: 4 or 6 dry, 4 or 5 moist
Chroma: 2 to 6, dry or moist
Rock fragments: Total is 0 to 60 percent
Channers: 20 to 30 percent
Flagstones: 5 to 15 percent
Stones: 0 to 5 percent
Boulders: 0 to 10 percent
2Bw horizons
Hue: 10YR, 2.5Y
Value: 4 through 6 dry, 3 through 5 moist
Chroma: 1 through 4, dry or moist
Texture: silty clay loam, silty clay
Salinity, dS/m: 4 to 8
Sodicity, SAR: 0 to 5
Gypsum content: 0 to 2 percent
Other features: 0 to 20 percent parachanners
2Cy horizons
Hue: 10YR, 2.5Y
Value: 4 through 6 dry, 3 through 5 moist
Chroma: 1 through 4, dry or moist
Texture: silty clay loam, clay loam, clay, silty clay
Salinity, dS/m: 4 to 16
Sodicity, SAR: 5 to 13
Gypsum content: 2 to 5 percent
Other features: 30 to 70 percent parachanners
COMPETING SERIES: This is the Louviers (CO) series. Louviers soils are moist during May and June and attempt to reflect the effects of soil forming agents unique to the Great Plains.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Eagleye soils are on footslopes and backslopes on escarpments, hills, ridges and structural benches. They formed in slope alluvium and residuum derived from Cretaceous shale and sandstone. Slopes range from 2 to 70 percent. Elevation ranges from 5,700 to 7,400 feet. The mean annual precipitation is typically 10 to 14 inches. The mean annual air temperature is 46 to 53 degrees F. The average frost-free period is 100 to 150 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Beclabito, Farview, Snapill, and Strych, and Toadlena soils. Beclabito soils are deep with natric horizons on adjacent toeslopes. Farview soils are very shallow to sandstone on structural benches. Snapill soils are deep, fine-silty, and have argillic horizons on summits of mesas. Strych soils are very deep and loamy-skeletal, and occur on adjacent stable landslides above Eagleye soils. Toadlena soils are loamy and shallow, have gypsic horizons, and occur on adjacent summits and footslopes of structural benches.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained; very high runoff; slow permeability
USE AND VEGETATION: Eagleye soils are used for limited livestock grazing. Present vegetation is galleta, alkali sacaton, Indian ricegrass, shadscale, cheatgrass and scattered Utah juniper and Wyoming big sagebrush.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Eagleye soils are of small extent on the Four Corners Platform and Blanding Basin portions of the Colorado Plateau province in northwest New Mexico, northeast Arizona and southwest Colorado. More acres of this soil occur on the adjacent Ute Mountain Indian Reservation in New Mexico. 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 the soil surface to a depth of about 2 inches. (A horizon)
Nonacid reaction class - the lack of effervescence in all parts of the fine-earth fraction of the soil when treated with cold dilute HCL, and accompanied by pHs higher than 5.0.
Paralithic contact - The presence of soft shale bedrock at about 18 inches.
ADDITIONAL DATA: Salinity values were determined on three pedons with a Wheatstone bridge. The series type location has been sampled for determination of particle-size, SAR, soluble salts and calcium carbonate equivalence and analyzed at the BIA soils lab in Gallup, New Mexico as sample S87NM-045-7.
Classified according to Keys to Soil Taxonomy Ninth Edition, 2003