LOCATION GISHTON KYTentative Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, active, acid, mesic Alfic Udarents
TYPICAL PEDON: Gishton silt loam - with a 1 percent convex slope in a cultivated field at an elevation of about 123.4 meters (405 feet) above mean sea level. (Colors are for moist soils unless otherwise stated.)
Ap--0 to 9 centimeters (0 to 4 inches); brown (10YR 5/3), light gray (10YR 7/2) dry, silt loam; weak medium granular structure; friable; strongly acid, (pH 5.2), abrupt smooth boundary. (8 to 25 centimeters (3 to 10 inches) thick)
C1--9 to 59 centimeters (4 to 23 inches); variegated 60 percent yellowish brown (10YR 5/4), 20 percent gray (10YR 5/1) and 20 percent yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) silty clay loam; massive; firm; 60 percent fragments of remnant diagnostic horizons of the argillic horizon and fragipan; strongly acid, (pH 5.4), clear smooth boundary.
C2--59 to 77 centimeters (23 to 30 inches); variegated 50 percent yellowish brown (10YR 5/4), 30 percent yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) and 20 percent gray (10YR 5/1) silty clay loam; massive; firm; 1 percent fine prominent spherical very strongly cemented black (N 2.5/), moist, iron-manganese concretions with sharp boundaries throughout and 1 percent fine prominent irregular yellowish red (5YR 4/6), moist, masses of oxidized iron throughout; 60 percent fragments of remnant diagnostic horizons of the argillic horizon and fragipan; very strongly acid, (pH 5.0), gradual smooth boundary.
C3--77 to 152 centimeters (30 to 60 inches); variegated 50 percent yellowish brown (10YR 5/4), 30 percent gray (10YR 5/1) and 20 percent yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) silt loam; massive; firm; 2 percent medium distinct irregular yellowish red (5YR 4/6), moist, masses of oxidized iron throughout and 3 percent fine prominent spherical very strongly cemented black (N 2.5/), moist, iron-manganese concretions with sharp boundaries throughout; 60 percent fragments of remnant diagnostic horizons of the argillic horizon and fragipan; very strongly acid, (pH 5.0), abrupt smooth boundary. (Combined thickness of the C horizon is 97 to 152 centimeters (38 to 60 inches thick)
2C--152 to 203 centimeters (60 to 80 inches); variegated 80 percent very dark gray (N 3/), and 20 percent light olive gray (5Y 6/2) stratified silt loam to channery silty clay loam to extremely channery silty clay; massive; firm; 70 percent flat subangular weakly cemented 2- to 150-millimeter acid shale fragments; very strongly acid, (pH 4.8)
TYPE LOCATION: Ohio County, Kentucky; about 4,850 feet east and 1,605 feet south of the intersection of KY Highway 69 and KY Highway 273; USGS Hartford, KY Quadrangle; Latitude 37 degrees 25 minutes 16 seconds north and Longitude 86 degrees 54 minutes 46 seconds west, NAD 83; UTM Zone 16, 507727 meters easting and 4141593 meters northing, NAD 83.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The particle-size control section ranges from 0 to about 10 percent by volume coarse fragments. In some pedons, soil fragments and isolated peds of relict genetic horizons of pre-mined soils are randomly distributed throughout and are disordered relative to any plane in the profile. Some of the soils fragments have identifiable properties such as redoximorphic features, clay films, or coatings that are characteristic of their previous formation. The organic carbon content decreases irregularly with depth in most pedons because of mixing or layering and from of the presence of coal or other carbonaceous material. Abrupt boundaries between soil layers are common and the compact layers or contrasting materials contribute to the restricted movement of roots and water. The depth to bedrock is greater than 5 feet.
Ap or A horizon:
Hue: 10YR and less commonly 7.5YR, 2.5YR and 5YR
Value: 4 or 5 and less commonly 4 to 6
Chroma: 2 to 4 and less commonly 1 to 8
Texture: silt loam or silty clay loam
Reaction: strongly acid to neutral
C horizon:
Hue: 7.5YR, 10YR, 2.5YR, and 5Y
Value: 4 to 6
Chroma: 1 to 8
Texture: silty clay loam, silt loam, or clay loam
Reaction: very strongly acid or strongly acid
Rock fragment content: 0 to 10 percent by volume of channers of sandstone, siltstone, and shale
2C horizon:
Below a depth of 48 inches the C horizon has a wide range of colors, and colors are variegated.
Hue: N, 5Y, 2.5Y, 10YR, 7.5YR
Value: 4 to 6
Chroma: 1 to 8
Texture: clay loam, loam, silty clay loam, silt loam, or silty clay, or their channery to extremely channery or gravelly to extremely gravelly analogs.
Reaction: ultra acid to neutral
Rock fragment content: 10 to 80 percent by volume channers of sandstone, siltstone, and shale
COMPETING SERIES: There are no competing series. Closely related series include the Farmerstown, and Swanwick series. Farmerstown soils are fine-loamy and Swanwick soils are nonacid.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Gishton soils are on crests and slopes of reconstructed landscapes. Slope ranges from 0 to 6 percent. The soils formed in materials that were excavated and reclaimed during surface mining operations. The upper 122 centimeters (48 inches) of the regolith dominantly is fine-earth material that consists of a mixture of the subsoil and substratum layers of pre-mined soils. Most areas have been covered with the surface layer of pre-mined soils. At depths usually greater than 122 centimeters (48 inches), the regolith is typically fine-earth material and fragments of bedrock. It is dominated by loamy material consisting of a mixture of residuum weathered from interbedded siltstone, sandstone, shale, or limestone. Mean annual precipitation is 112 to 122 centimeters (44 to 48 inches), and mean annual temperature is 11 to 14 degrees C (52 to 57 degrees F.), frost-free period is 170 to 200 days, and elevation is 360 to 700 feet above mean sea level.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Bethesda, Fairpoint, Farmerstown, Morristown, Swanwick and Tapawingo soils on surface-mined areas, and the Apalona, Ava, Deuchars, Frondorf, Grantsburg, Hosmer, Tipsaw, Wellston, and Zanesville soils on adjacent or nearby undisturbed areas. Swanwick soils are non-acid. Farmerstown soils are fine-loamy and are shallower to unconsolidated regolith. Bethesda, Fairpoint, Morristown, and Tapawingo soils contain more rock fragments throughout and typically are on steeper side slopes on mostly unreclaimed areas nearby. The moderately well drained, very deep Apalona, Ava, Deuchars, Grantsburg and Hosmer, soils and deep Zanesville soils have argillic horizons and Apalona, Ava, Grantsburg, Hosmer, and Zanesville soils also have fragipans and are on convex summits and side slopes. The deep, well drained, Wellston soils formed in silty material over sandstone, shale, or siltstone and are on shoulders and side slopes. The moderately deep, well drained Frondorf and Gilpin soils and the somewhat excessively drained Tipsaw soils are on steeper sideslopes.
DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Well drained. The potential for surface water runoff is low or medium. The Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity is moderately high in the surface layer, moderately high to low in the stratified materials to a depth of about 122 centimeters (48 inches), and is low in the lower part of the substratum. Some areas of these soils, especially with nearly level slope gradients, develop wet spots as a result of differential settlement of the disturbed material. Water perches at various levels within the soil on the compressed layers, but primarily on the discontinuity at a depth of about 122 centimeters (48 inches).
USE AND VEGETATION: Gishton soils are used mainly for cultivated crops or in rotation with grass-legume mixtures for meadow or pasture. These soils are considered to be Prime Farmland.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. Extent is small, in MLRA(s) 114, 115 and 120. The type location is located in MLRA 120. Additional acres of this series will be recognized as reclaimed mine areas are updated.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES PROPOSED: Ohio County, Kentucky, 2009. The series was named for a small town in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky.
REMARKS: These soils were formerly mapped as Swanwick, Farmerstown, mine spoils, strip mines, orthents, udorthents or other miscellaneous categories in previous soil surveys. These soils will have a succession of compressed layers of traffic pans in the C horizons that formed during placement and grading of the soil material when rubber tired pans were used. Soils that were reclaimed by the truck and dozer method do not have the compressed layers caused by rubber tired scrapers, but will have some reduced permeability. Some of the individual layers have high bulk density and low available water capacity.
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
Ochric epipedon the zone from the surface of the soils to a depth of approximately 9 centimeters (4 inches) (Ap horizon).
ADDITIONAL DATA: Pedons S02IN027-002 and S02IN173-002 were used to help classify this series and are on file at the National Soil Survey Center, Lincoln, Nebraska.
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