LOCATION GOODPASTER              AK

Established Series
Rev. DBS/SR
05/2022

GOODPASTER SERIES

The Goodpaster series consists very poorly drained soils formed in micaceous silty loess overlying alluvium on terraces. Goodpaster soils are perennially frozen. Slopes range from 0 to 3 percent. Mean annual temperature is about 24 degrees F., and the average annual precipitation is about 12 inches.

TAXONOMIC CLASS:

TYPICAL PEDON: Goodpaster peat - under sedges, mosses, and shrubs (All colors are for moist soil)

Oi1--9 to 4 inches; dark brown (7.5YR 4/4) hypnum moss peat; no change in color by pressing; nearly 100 percent fiber after rubbing; many roots; medium acid; abrupt smooth boundary.

Oi2--4 inches to 0; black (5YR 2/1) moss peat; no color change by pressing; about 95 percent fiber after rubbing; many roots; medium acid; abrupt irregular boundary.

Bw--0 to 15 inches; olive gray (5Y 5/2) silt loam with irregular streaks of sandy loam; many coarse faint mottles of olive (5Y 5/3); few black (N 2/) streaks, especially in upper part of horizon; massive; friable; no roots; patches of frozen soil in lower part of horizon in late summer; medium acid; abrupt wavy boundary.
2C--15 to 25 inches; very gravelly coarse sand; colors vary with individual grains; single grained; loose; no roots; medium acid; clear wavy boundary.

2Cf--25 to 60 inches; permafrost.


TYPE LOCATION: Goldstream - Nenana Area, Alaska; SE 1/4 NE 1/4, section 32, T.6S., R.8W., Fairbanks Meridian.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the O horizon ranges from 8 to 16 inches. Thickness of the silt loam mantle and depth to the sandy-skeletal substratum ranges from 10 to 25 inches. A black or very dark brown A horizon up to 6 inches thick is present in some pedons. The water table is usually close to the ground surface but may be as deep as 20 inches in midsummer. Depth to permafrost ranges from 10 to 25 inches when the organic mat is undistrubed.

COMPETING SERIES: There are no competing series in the same family.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Goodpaster soils occupy low terraces bordering floodplains of streams carrying glacial outwash water. The soils formed in silty alluvium that is high in mica over thick deposits of alluvial sand and gravel. The climate is cold continental. Mean annual temperatures range from 20 to 28 degrees F., and mean annual precipitation ranges from 10 to 14 inches.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Donnelly, Nenana, and Volkmar soils. Donnelly soils have thin brown silty sola over outwash gravel. Nenana soils have brown sola developed in moderately deep silty deposits over outwash gravel. Volkmar soils have mottled sola in moderately deep silty deposits over outwash gravel and have moderately deep water tables.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Very poorly drained. Slow to ponded runoff. Moderate permeability in the mantle, very rapid in the sand, impermeable in the ice.

USE AND VEGETATION: Mostly in native vegetation which consists of black spruce, willows, dwarf birch, Labrador tea, other low-growing shrubs, sedges, and moss.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Central Alaska. The series is inextensive.

SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (SSRO) RESPONSIBLE: WASILLA, ALASKA

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Goldstream-Nenana Area, Alaska, 1973.

REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this profile include: a histic epipedon from 9 inches to 0 and permafrost at 25 inches; loamy particle size from 0 to 15 inches and sandy-skeletal from 15 to 25 inches.

NATIONAL COOPERATIVE SOIL SURVEY
U.S.A.