LOCATION HIGHSPLINT KY+VA WVEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, active, mesic Typic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Highsplint very channery silt loam-on a 55 percent smooth south-facing slope at an elevation of 2,100 feet in a yellow poplar, American beech, sugar maple, and northern red oak forest. (Colors are for moist soil).
Oi--0 to 2 inches; slightly-decomposed leaves, twigs and roots. (0 to 3 inches thick)
A--2 to 6 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) very channery silt loam; moderate medium granular structure; very friable; many fine roots; 50 percent mixed sedimentary rock fragments - 40 percent channers and 10 percent flagstones; very strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (2 to 10 inches thick)
BA--6 to 13 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) very channery silt loam; weak fine subangular blocky structure; friable; common medium roots; 50 percent mixed sedimentary rock fragments-40 percent channers and 10 percent flagstones; very strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (0 to 12 inches thick)
Bw1--13 to 30 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) very channery silty clay loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; few medium roots; 50 percent mixed sedimentary rock fragments - 40 percent channers and 10 percent flagstones; very strongly acid; diffuse boundary.
Bw2--30 to 50 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) very channery loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine roots; 50 percent mixed sedimentary rock fragments - 40 percent channers and 10 percent flagstones; very strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bw is more than 38 inches.)
BC--50 to 62 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) very channery loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; firm; few fine roots; few fine prominent light gray (10YR 7/1) iron depletions; few distinct yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) clay films; about 20 percent of horizon is compact and brittle; 50 percent mixed sedimentary rock fragments - 40 percent channers and 10 percent flagstones; very strongly acid. (0 to 36 inches thick)
TYPE LOCATION: Harlan County, Kentucky; 1,300 feet northeast of the confluence of the Left and Right Forks of Cloverlick Creek, about 5.5 miles southeast of Cumberland; 36 degrees, 55 minutes, 40.8 seconds N. Latitude and 82 degrees, 56 minutes, 40.7 seconds W. Longitude; USGS Benham Topographic Quadrangle; NAD 83.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum ranges from 40 to 60 inches or more. Depth to bedrock ranges from 48 to 60 inches or more. Rock fragments, mostly sandstone channers and flagstones, commonly make up 35 to 90 percent of the soils volume. A few pedons, to a depth of about 24 inches, have horizons containing 15 to 35 percent rock fragments. Reaction is extremely to slightly acid in the surface layer and extremely to strongly acid in the solum and substratum.
The A horizon has hue of 10YR, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 2 to 4. Some pedons have thin A horizons with value of 2 and chroma of 1. Texture of the fine-earth is sandy loam, fine sandy loam, silt loam, or loam. Transitional horizons dominated by A material share these properties. A few pedons meet depth requirements for mollic or umbric epipedons, but do not meet dry color criteria.
The BA horizon has hue of 10YR or 7.5YR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 3 to 6. Texture of the fine-earth is loam, silt loam, or silty clay loam.
The Bw horizon has a hue of 7.5YR to 2.5Y, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 4 to 8. Some pedons, below a depth of 40 inches, have lithochromic mottles or redoximorphic features in shades of brown, olive, or gray. Texture of the fine-earth is loam, silt loam, clay loam, or silty clay loam. Silt content ranges from 35 to about 65 percent.
The BC horizon has colors and textures similar to the Bw horizon, but commonly displays weak fragic properties believed to be the result of cementation from lateral water movement. These horizons also may have lithochromic mottles or redoximorphic features in shades of brown, olive or gray below a depth of 40 inches.
The CB or C horizons, where present, have hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 2 to 6. Redoximorphic features in shades of brown, olive, or gray are common below a depth of 40 inches and generally increase with depth. Texture of the fine-earth is sandy loam, fine sandy loam, silt loam, silty clay loam, loam or clay loam.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Berks, Blasdell, Brownstown, Brownsville, Cadosia, Calvin, Cloverlick, Deadline, Jubin, Judyville, Keyesville (T), Lippitt, Manlius, Matewan, Nailkeg, Peaks, Solon (T), Sylco, Tiverton (I), Warwick and Wyoming series in the same family. Berks, Brownstown, Calvin, Judyville, Keyesville, Lippitt, Manlius, Matewan, Nailkeg, Peaks, and Slyco soils have bedrock within 40 inches. Blasdell and Brownsville soils contain less than 18 percent clay in the control section. Cadosia soils have mean annual air temperature of 45 to 48 degrees. Cloverlick soils have a dark surface horizon 7 to 10 inches thick. Deadline soils formed in residuum or colluvium of schist or phyllite. Jubin soils have more than 50% sand in the solum textures, are dominated by bouldery fragments, and have a solum depth in excess of 80 inches. Solon soils formed in mixed glacial till and colluvium. Warwick soils formed in glaciofluvial deposits of phyllite, slate and shale. Wyoming soils formed in gravelly water sorted materials and have more than 50 percent fine sand and coarser in the control section.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Highsplint soils are on side slopes and foot slopes of mountains and hills and on colluvial fans at the mouths of drainageways. They are most common on the lower two-thirds of mountains. These soils formed in colluvium weathered from Pennsylvanian aged clastics. Elevation ranges from about 600 to 3,800 feet. Near the type location, mean annual temperature ranges from 48 to 57 degrees F, and the mean annual precipitation ranges from 43 to 55 inches. Mean annual precipitation is about 50 inches and the mean annual temperature is about 54 degrees F.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Cloverlick, Cutshin, Fedscreek, Guyandotte, Handshoe, Kimper, Matewan and Shelocta soils. Cloverlick and Kimper soils have a thicker, dark colored A horizons. Cutshin and Guyandotte soils have umbric epipedons. Fedscreek, Kimper and Shelocta soils contain less than 35 percent rock fragments in the subsoil. Handshoe soils average less than 18 percent clay in the partial size control section and are in a semiactive CEC activity class. Matewan soils are moderately deep.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. Permeability is moderate or moderately rapid in the solum. Runoff class is low or medium on strongly sloping and moderately steep slopes and medium or high on steep and very steep slopes.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are in second growth forest with mixed stands of sugar maple, yellow poplar, chestnut oak, red maple, black locust, northern red oak, white oak, American beech, and hickories. Minor species include cucumber tree, black oak, green ash, sweet birch, and black cherry. A few of the less sloping areas are used for pasture and sites for homes and gardens and residential development is dense in some areas.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Highsplint soils are in the Allegheny-Cumberland Plateau of eastern Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia and possibly similar areas in Tennessee. The series is estimated to be of large extent with over 100,000 acres mapped.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Harlan County, Kentucky, 1989
REMARKS: Highsplint soils were previously mapped as the stony phase of Jefferson or Muskingum soils. Most pedons have higher bulk densities in the lower subsoil because water moves laterally under saturated conditions above this layer.
Commonly these soils have well-expressed cambic horizons with few clay skins, but lack sufficient clay increase with depth for argillic horizons.
The 2/2001 revision updates Highsplint to 8th edition of the Keys to Soil Taxonomy. Competing series were updated along with redoximorphic feature terminology and the range in characteristics. Redoximorphic features above 40 inches were removed from the range. The CEC class placement is based on five pedons. Three were active and two were semiactive.
The 8/2005 revision updates the location, range in characteristics, competing series and minor grammatical errors.
Diagnostic horizons recognized in this pedon are:
Ochric epipedon - 0 to 6 inches (Oi and A horizons).
Cambic horizon - 6 to 62 inches (BA, Bw, and BC horizons).
MLRA=125, 127
ADDITIONAL DATA: Reference samples S85KY-095-4 (typical pedon), S85KY-095-5 and S97WV-093-004 by NSSL and samples 86KY-069-9 and 89KY-115-1 by University of Kentucky.
Revised: 4/94-JDC, WHC, JMR; 2/2001-ABJ, DHK; 8/2005 JDM