LOCATION HASSOCK NY

Established Series
LAH- JTI
01/2014

HASSOCK SERIES

The Hassock series consists of very deep, well drained soils formed in deposits of incinerator fly ash. The soil occurs on anthropogenic landscapes in and near major urbanized areas of the Northeast. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high to high. Slope ranges from 0 to 35 percent. Mean annual temperature is about 13 degrees C and mean annual precipitation is about 1196 mm.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, active, nonacid, mesic Typic Udorthents

TYPICAL PEDON: Hassock sandy loam in an abandoned military field with 0 to 3 percent slope. (Colors are for moist soil unless otheriwse noted.)

^Au-- 0 to 8 cm; very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) sandy loam; weak very fine granular structure; very friable; many very fine and fine roots throughout; 4 percent gravel-sized bricks, 2 percent gravel-sized metals, 2 percent gravel-sized glass, 2 percent gravel; neutral; clear smooth boundary. (5 to 13 centimeters thick.)

^Cu1-- 8 to 40 cm; very dark gray (10YR 3/1) coarse sandy loam; few coarse prominent strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) mottles; massive; very friable; many very fine and fine roots throughout; 4 percent gravel-sized bricks, 2 percent gravel-sized metals, 2 gravel-sized percent glass, 2 percent gravel; neutral; clear wavy boundary.

^Cu2-- 40 to 71 cm; dark gray (10YR 4/1) coarse sandy loam; many coarse prominent strong brown (7.5YR 5/8) mottles; massive; very friable; 4 percent gravel-sized bricks, 1 percent gravel-sized metals, 1 percent gravel-sized glass, 3 percent carboliths, 17 percent gravel; neutral; clear wavy boundary.

^Cu3-- 71 to 165 cm; dark gray (10YR 4/1) coarse sandy loam; massive; very friable; 4 percent gravel-sized bricks, 1 percent gravel-sized metals, 1 percent gravel-sized glass, 3 percent carboliths, 2 percent gravel; neutral.

TYPE LOCATION: Kings County, New York; Floyd Bennett Field North 40 Zone, Gateway National Recreation Area; USGS Coney Island topographic quadrangle; Latitude 40 degrees, 35 minutes, 52 seconds N. and Longitude 73 degrees, 54 minutes, 03 seconds W. (Rockwell GPS Receiver), NAD 83.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The thickness of the fly ash materials is generally more than 1.5 meters thick. Colors are hue of N/ , 10Y, 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 2 to 4, and chroma of 0 to 3. Textures include silt loam, loam and sandy loam. Coarse fragments of coal, slag, brick, glass and metals range from 0 to 30 percent. Depletions may occur below 100 cm in some pedons. Reaction ranges from slightly acid to slightly alkaline.

The ^Au horizon may be defined more on the abundance of roots than anything else. The structure is very fine granular or it is structureless. Organic carbon accumulation would be difficult to identify by morphology.

The ^Cu horizons have distinctly fewer roots than the ^Au horizon, but otherwise look similar. It is structureless.

COMPETING SERIES: This is the Shea series. Shea soils are formed in a loamy cap of human transported soil materials over an impermeable asphalt layer.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Hassock soils are on nearly level to steep artificially created landforms in fill areas. These soils formed in fly ash that resulted from industrial burning of coal. Some areas may be covered with a thin cap of natural soil as a prevention of wind blowing. Slope ranges from 0 to 35 percent. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 1021 to 1325 mm and mean annual temperature ranges from 9 to 13 degrees C.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These deposits may occur anywhere. Soils on nearby landscape positions include Fishkill, Flatland, and Winhole series. Winhole, Flatland, and Fishkill occur on lower landscape positions and are wetter soil moisture status. Fishkill soils have a water table immediately below the A horizon. Flatland soils have a water table at 38 to 60 cm. Winhole soils have a water table at 60 to 100 cm.

DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Well drained. The potential for surface runoff is very low to medium. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high to high.

USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are generally densely covered with common reed. Other vegetation species includes mugwort, Golden Rod, Black locust, Tree of Heaven, Multiflora rose, Poison Ivy, Poplar, Black Cherry, Grey Birch, White Mulberry and Japanese knotweed. Planted species include Autumn Olive. Reclamation is unlikely because there is no natural vegetation to restore, and the areas vegetate naturally after deposition ceases. These soils are used for recreational development and wildlife refuge.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: These soils occur on modified landscapes in and near major urbanized areas of the Northeast. MLRA 144A and 149B. The soils of this series are small extent.

MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts.

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Kings County, New York, 2014. Series proposed Kings County, New York, 1995.

REMARKS: Hassock soils are mapped in the soil survey areas of the Gateway National Recreation Area and the initial survey areas of Kings and Queens Counties, NY. The soils are of minimal extent (less than 1,000 acres), however they are of unique importance to users of the soil surveys.

Hassock soils often exhibit an irregular decrease in organic carbon with depth however this is a result of anthropogenic filling (deposition) not alluvial deposition; excluding them from the concept of Fluvents. Proposed revisions to soil taxonomy in ICOMANTH Circular Letter 7 developed for anthropogenic soils will help to clarify this difference.

Carbolith is a name coined at West Virginia University to describe dark colored sedimentary rocks that will make a black or very dark (Munsell color value of 3 or less) streak or powder. Rocks under this name include coal not scheduled for mining, impure waste coal, bone coal, high carbon siltstones, and high carbon shale.

Fly ash supplies accumulated over more than one hundred years of time when hard coal was the main source of heating and producer of heat for production of electricity. The material often contains debris tossed into furnaces during burning.

Particle size class control section characterization data from pedon S99NY047005 was used for this soil.

Due to the recent deposit of this material and the low organic matter content normal redoximorphic processes have not progressed. Aquic conditions have not been observed and alteration of the parent material colors has not progressed. These considerations are being used as the basis for the classification.

CEC reaction class is estimated.

Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon include:

1. Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 8 cm.
2. Rock fragments in the particle-size control section averages less than 35 percent by volume.
3. The classification of this series may change as anthropogenic criteria are added to Soil Taxonomy.

National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.