LOCATION EMORY TN+AL GA VAEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, siliceous, active, thermic Fluventic Humic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Emory silt loam--cultivated. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated.)
Ap--0 to 8 inches; dark reddish brown (5YR 3/3) silt loam; moderate medium granular structure; friable; many fine and medium roots; medium acid; clear smooth boundary. (7 to 10 inches thick)
Bw--8 to 32 inches; dark reddish brown (5YR 3/4) silt loam; weak medium and fine subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine roots; 5 percent angular fragments of chert up to .5 inch in diameter; medium acid; clear smooth boundary. (10 to 35 inches thick)
Ab--32 to 42 inches; dark reddish brown (5YR 3/4) silt loam, weak medium granular structure; friable; few fine roots; medium acid; clear wavy boundary. (0 to 15 inches thick)
Btb--42 to 60 inches; reddish brown (5YR 4/4) silty clay loam; few streaks and coatings of dark reddish brown (5YR 3/2); weak medium subangular blocky structure; few distinct clay films on faces of peds; few fragments of chert up to 1 inch in diameter; strongly acid. (10 to 25 inches thick)
TYPE LOCATION: White County, Tennessee; 1 mile northeast of Hickory Valley School; 300 feet west of junction of Hickory Valley Creek and paved road.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the local alluvium over the buried solum ranges from about 20 to 45 inches. Reaction is strongly acid or medium acid in all horizons except where limed. Pebbles and cobbles range from 0 to 10 percent in the Ap, Bw and Ab horizons and 0 to 20 percent percent in the Btb horizon.
The Ap horizon has hue of 5YR or 7.5YR, value of 3 and chroma of 2 to 4. It is silt loam or rarely silty clay loam.
The Bw horizon has hue of 7.5YR to 2.5YR, value of 3 to 5 and chroma of 3 to 6. It is silt loam or silty clay loam.
The Ab horizon has hue of 7.5YR or 5YR, value of 3 or 4 and chroma of 2 to 4. It is silt loam or silty clay loam.
The Btb horizon has hue of 7.5YR to 2.5YR, value of 4 or 5 and chroma of 3 to 6. Some pedons have mottles in shades of brown, yellow and red. It is silty clay loam, clay loam, silty clay or clay.
COMPETING SERIES: There are no other series in this family. Soils in similar families are the Ennis, Etowah and Greendale series. Ennis and Greendale soils have colors dominantly of 10YR hue, and lack dark epipedons. Etowah soils have argillic horizons. Greendale soils are also mesic.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Emory soils are in narrow strips along intermittent drainageways, and in small irregularly shaped areas on toe slopes and in the bottoms of upland depressions. Slopes range from 0 to 4 percent. These soils formed in medium textured local alluvium and the underlying buried soil. Average annual temperature is 60 degrees F., near the type location and average annual rainfall is 52 inches.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the competing Etowah series and the Claiborne, Cumberland, Decatur, Dewey and Waynesboro series. Etowah soils are on adjacent side slopes. Claiborne, Cumberland, Decatur, Dewey and Waynesboro soils are on slightly higher adjacent side slopes and ridges and all have a thick argillic horizons.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Emory soils are well drained. Runoff is slow to medium and permeability is moderate.
USE AND VEGETATION: Areas large enough to crop or adjacent to other cropland are used for growing corn, cotton, tobacco, hay crops, and vegetable crops. The original vegetation was hardwood forest, including oak, maple, gum, yellow poplar, hickory, ash, beech, and sycamore.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Highland Rim, Nashville Basin, and Appalachian Ridges and Valleys MLRAs in Tennessee, northwest Georgia, northern Alabama, and possibly south-central Kentucky. The series is of moderate extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Washington County, Virginia; 1937.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features in this pedon are:
Umbric epipedon- 0 to 8 inches (Ap horizon)
Cambic horizon- 8 to 32 inches (Bw horizon)
Buried A horizon- 32 to 42 inches (Ab horizon)
Buried argillic horizon- 42 to 60 inches (Btb horizon)