LOCATION EZEL KYEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, semiactive, mesic Typic Hapludults
TYPICAL PEDON: Ezel loam in area of Ezel-Gilpin complex, 2 to 6 percent slopes used as pasture. (Colors are for moist soil)
Ap--0 to 11 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) loam; weak fine granular structure; very friable; many fine roots; neutral; clear smooth boundary. (6 to 12 inches thick)
BA--11 to 16 inches; brownish yellow (10YR 6/6) loam; 25 percent tonguing and coatings of surface material; weak medium subangular blocky structure; very friable; few fine roots; 2 percent quartzite pebbles; few fine (<5mm) Fe nodules; neutral; clear wavy boundary. (0 to 6 inches thick)
Bt1--16 to 28 inches; brownish yellow (10YR 6/6) loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine roots; few thin clay films on faces of peds; 2 percent quartzite pebbles; moderately acid; clear smooth boundary. (8 to 14 inches)
Bt2--28 to 39 inches; brownish yellow (10YR 6/6) loam; moderate fine and medium subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine roots; few thin clay films on faces of peds; 2 percent quartzite pebbles; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (8 to 14 inches)
BC--39 to 47 inches; brownish yellow (10YR 6/6) loam; common medium distinct very pale brown (10YR 7/3) mottles; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; very few fine roots; 2 percent sandstone pebbles and 10 percent soft sandstone channers; strongly acid; gradual smooth boundary. (0 to 10 inches)
C--47 to 53 inches; mottled brownish yellow (10YR 6/6), very pale brown (10YR 7/3), and strong brown (7.5YR 5/8) loam; massive; friable; 10 percent sandstone channers; strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (4 to 10 inches)
2R--53 inches; unweathered sandstone bedrock.
TYPE LOCATION: Morgan County, Kentucky; on a strath terrace about .5 mile south of Ezel; 1000 feet southwest of the confluence of Meetinghouse Branch and Blackwater Creek and 500 feet east of Kentucky Highway 882; Latitude 37 degrees, 52 minutes, 55 seconds N and Longitude 83 degrees, 26 minutes, 30 seconds W; USGS Ezel Quadrangle; NAD 1927.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness ranges from 30 to 60 inches. Depth to bedrock ranges from 40 to 60 inches. Content of gravels and channers range from 0 to 15 percent in the A horizon, 0 to 30 in the Bt horizon, and from 0 to 35 percent in the BC and C horizons above any lithologic discontinuity. The soil ranges from neutral to strongly acid in the solum and strongly acid to extremely acid in the substratum.
The A or Ap horizon has hue of 7.5YR to 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 3 to 8. It is loam, silt loam, or rarely sandy loam. Some pedons have thin A horizons with value of 3 and chroma of 1 to 3.
The BA or BE horizon (where present) has hue of 7.5YR to 2.5Y, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 3 to 8. It is loam, silt loam or sandy loam.
The Bt horizon has hue of 7.5YR to 2.5Y, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 3 to 8. It is loam, silt loam or sandy clay loam. Some pedons have mottles in shades of brown, red, and yellow below the upper 24 inches of the argillic horizon and shades of gray or olive below 40 inches. A few pedons have individual horizons of sandy loam below a depth of 24 inches.
The BC horizon (where present) has hue of 7.5YR to 2.5Y, value of 4 to 7, and chroma of 3 to 8. It is sandy loam, loam, sandy clay loam, or clay loam.
The C horizon has hue of 7.5YR to 2.5Y, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 3 to 8. Redoximorphic features in shades of black, brown, yellow, gray and olive are common. It is sandy loam, loam, or sandy clay loam.
Some pedons have a 2BC or 2C horizons with 35 to 80 percent gravel and cobbles and/or strongly contrasting particle size in comparison with overlying horizons.
The 2R horizon consists of sandstone, siltstone or shale bedrock and is weathered in places.
COMPETING SERIES: These are Albemarle, Allegheny, Allenwood, Arendtsville, Cades, Cardova, Chester, Chetwynd, Drapermill, Elsinboro, Eubanks, Frankstown, Gilwood, Glenelg, Happyland, Leck Kill, Lonon, Meadowville, Milldraper, Murrill, Nixon, Queponco, Reybold, Rhodiss, Shouns, Tate, Ungers and Whiteford series in the same family. Albemarle, Allenwood, Arendtsville, Chetwynd, Eubanks, Leck Kill, Lonon, Shouns, Ungers and Whiteford soils have hues of 5YR or redder either throughout or in some subhorizon of the B horizon. Allegheny soils are greater than 60 inches deep to bedrock. Cades, Chester, Glenelg and Tate soils have coarse fragments dominated by quartz, quartzite, granite, gneiss, metamonzonite, meta-arkosic sandstone, metasandstone, phyllite or schist. Cardova, Drapermill, Gilwood and Milldraper soils have bedrock at depths of less than 40 inches. Elsinboro soils formed in alluvium weathered from micaceous crystalline rocks. Frankstown soils formed in upland residuum weathered from siliceous limestone and interbedded limy shale and siltstone. Meadowville soils formed in upland alluvium and underlying residuum weathered from basic and acidic rocks. Nixon soils contain detectable red shale detrital components in the coarse fragments and fine-earth fractions. Queponco and Reybold soils formed in loamy or silty fluvial and eolian deposits underlain by sandy and loamy fluvial and marine (fluviomarine) deposits. Murrill soils formed in colluvium weathered from acid sandstones and shales and the underlying residuum. Rhodiss soils formed in residuum weathered from felsic crystalline rock.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Ezel soils are on high strath terraces along rivers and streams, commonly separated from a constructional valley floor by steep hillsides. Slopes on these high terraces generally range from 0 to 15 percent, but include short steep slopes up to 20 percent. These soils formed where bedrock is thinly mantled by old alluvial deposits that washed from colluvial and residual soils weathered from Pennsylvanian aged sandstone, siltstone, shale, coal, and limestone. Near the type location the average annual temperature is about 53 degrees F, and the average annual precipitation is about 45 inches.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the competing Allegheny Series and the Barbourville, Cotaco, Fedscreek, Gilpin, Grigsby, Hazleton, Helechawa, Knowlton, Latham, Lily, Morehead, Orrville, Pope, Rayne, Riney, Rigley, Rowdy, Shelocta and Whitley series. Allegheny, Cotaco, Knowlton, Morehead and Whitley soil are on lower stream terraces. Barbourville soils are on alluvial fans at the mouths of drainageways. Fedscreek, Hazleton, Helechawa, Rigley and Shelocta soils are on adjacent hillsides. Gilpin soils are on adjacent hillsides and ridgetops. Latham, Lily and Rayne soils are on ridgetops. Grigsby, Orrville, Pope and Rowdy soils are on low stream terraces and flood plains. Riney soils are on convex crests of strath terraces, generally adjacent to and above the Ezel Series. Allegheny, Barbourville, Cotaco, Grigsby, Helechawa, Knowlton, Morehead, Orrville, Pope, Riney, Rigley, Rowdy and Whitley soils are deeper than 60 inches to bedrock. Barbourville soils have umbric epipedons and lack argillic horizons. Cotaco and Morehead soils have low chroma iron depletions in the upper part of the argillic horizon. Gilpin, Latham and Lily soils are less than 40 inches to bedrock. Grigsby, Orrville, Rowdy and Pope soils are on floodplains and lack argillic horizons. Knowlton soils are fine-silty and poorly drained. Riney soils are redder and have siliceous mineralogy. Whitley soils are fine-silty.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained, with low to medium runoff and moderate permeability.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are in cultivated crops or pasture; a few areas are in secondary growth hardwood forest. Major crops are corn, tobacco, small grains, hay, vegetables and fruit. Native vegetation is mostly hardwoods such as oak, hickory, yellow-poplar, maple, elm, and beech, some pines and hemlocks.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Eastern Kentucky Mountains, Bluegrass and Knobs Regions of Kentucky and similar areas in West Virginia, Tennessee and Virginia. Extent is small.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Morgan County, Kentucky, 1994.
REMARKS: These soils were formerly included in the Allegheny series and were mapped as Allegheny Variant in the Soil Survey of Jackson and Owsley Counties, Kentucky (1989). They have also been interpreted as Allegheny bedrock substratum phases.
The diagnostic horizons recognized in this pedon are:
Ochric epipedon-The zone from 0 to 11 inches (Ap).
Argillic horizon-The zone from 16 to 39 inches (Bt1, Bt2).