LOCATION HOLTVILLE               CA+AZ NV

Established Series
RPZ/LAB/TDC/ET
04/2015

HOLTVILLE SERIES

The Holtville Series consists of very deep, well drained soils formed in mixed and stratified alluvium. Holtville soils are on flood plains and basins and have slopes of 0 to 3 percent. The mean annual precipitation is about 4 inches and the mean annual temperature is about 76 degrees F.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Clayey over loamy, smectitic over mixed, superactive, calcareous, hyperthermic Typic Torrifluvents

TYPICAL PEDON: Holtville silty clay--cultivated. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise stated.)

Ap--0 to 17 inches; light brown (7.5YR 6/4) silty clay, brown (7.5YR 5/4) moist; cloddy; hard, very firm, sticky and very plastic; common very fine and fine roots; few very fine tubular pores; strongly effervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.0); clear smooth boundary. (5 to 18 inches thick)

C1--17 to 24 inches; light brown (7.5YR 6/4) silty clay, brown (7.5YR 5/4) moist; moderately medium and thick platy structure; hard, firm, very sticky and very plastic; few fine roots; common fine tubular pores; vertical cracks up to 2 inches wide at top and 12 to 18 inches apart filled with loamy fine sand; strongly effervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.0); clear smooth boundary. (5 to 26 inches thick)

2C2--24 to 35 inches; very pale brown (10YR 7/3) silt loam, brown (10YR 5/3) moist massive; soft, friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; common very fine roots; many very fine tubular pores; discontinuous, thin stratum of silty clay at a depth of 27 inches; strongly effervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.0); clear smooth boundary. (0 to 12 inches thick)

2C3--35 to 60 inches; very pale brown (10YR 7/3) loamy very fine sand, brown (10YR 5/3) moist; single grains loose; few very fine interstitial pores; discontinuous thin stratum of silty clay at a depth of 37 inches; strongly effervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.0).

TYPE LOCATION: Imperial County, California; about 5 miles southeast of Westmoreland, CA.; about 550 feet north, 210 feet west of southeast corner of section 13, T.13S., R.13E., SBB&M; USGS Westmorland East 7.5 minute topographic quadrangle; 33 degrees 00 minutes 54 seconds north latitude and 115 degrees 34 minutes 23 seconds west longitude;UTM 11s 633282e, 3653854n: NAD 83.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The upper 20 to 36 inches are silty clay, clay or silty clay loam (see remarks). Vertical tongues 1/2 to 2 inches wide of sandy or coarser soil fill old cracks to depths greater than 20 inches. Unfilled soil cracks range from 1 mm to greater than 1 cm wide at a depth of 20 inches or more. The material below the clay or silty clay is dominantly loamy very fine sand, but some thick strata are silt loam to loamy fine sand. Strata as much as 1 inch thick of contrasting texture are in both the fine-textured upper layers and the coarse-textured lower layers.

It is usually massive, but some pedons have platy structure because of stratification. The soil is dominantly moderately alkaline, but some pedons have strata that are strongly alkaline. It is calcareous throughout with disseminated lime, and has soft threads and masses of gypsum in some pedons.

The A horizon dry color is 10YR 5/2, 5/3, 5/4, 6/1, 6/2, 6/3, 6/4; 7.5YR 5/2, 5/4, 6/2, or 6/4. Moist color is 10YR 3/1, 4/2, 4/3, 4/4, 5/2, 5/3, 5/4, 7.5YR 4/4, or 5/4.

C horizons have similar colors and also dry color of 10YR 7/3 or 7.5YR 7/4. Some thin strata or on fracture or structural planes a hue of 5YR occurs. Some pedons below 40 inches have fine sand.

COMPETING SERIES: There are no competing series.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: The Holtville soils are on nearly level flood plains and basins at elevations of about 800 feet above to 230 feet below sea level. Slopes are 0 to 3 percent. The Holtville soils formed in mixed and stratified alluvium and lacustrine sediments. The mean annual precipitation is less than 4 inches, the mean January temperature is 50 degrees F., the mean July temperature 90 degrees F., and the mean annual temperature 76 degrees F. Frost-free season is 300 to 360days.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Antho, Glenbar, Imperial, Indio, Meloland and Niland. Antho soils are coarse-loamy. Glenbar soils are fine-silty. Imperial soils are fine. Meloland soils are coarse-loamy over clayey. Niland soils are sandy over clayey.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained; low runoff; slow permeability.

USE AND VEGETATION: Irrigated areas are used for production of cotton, sugar beets, alfalfa, barley, carrots, and lettuce. Uncultivated areas have a sparse cover of desert shrubs and weeds.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Holtville soils are in the lower Colorado basin of California, Nevada and Arizona. They are moderately extensive.

MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: PHOENIX, ARIZONA

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Imperial County, El Centro Area, 1918.

REMARKS: Those soils mapped in the Imperial Valley Area and Palo Verde Area, California that have clayey surface horizons less than 20 inches thick that lack cracks would be separated as another series. Also those soils that have sandy C horizons within a depth of 40 inches.

Responsibility for this series was transferred from Davis to Phoenix 4/2015. The last revision to the series was 4/2006. ET

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National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.