LOCATION HUMPHREYS TN+AL

Established Series
Rev. DFC/JCJ/JLN
04/2011

HUMPHREYS SERIES

The Humphreys series consists of very deep, well drained soils on foot slopes, alluvial fans, and stream terraces. The soil formed in a mixture of alluvium and colluvium derived from cherty limestone, siltstone, and shale. Slopes range from 0 to 12 percent.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, semiactive, thermic Ultic Hapludalfs

TYPICAL PEDON: Humphreys silt loam - pasture. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated.)

Ap--0 to 10 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) gravelly silt loam; weak medium granular structure; very friable; many very fine and fine roots; many very fine tubular pores throughout; common medium and coarse prominent strong brown (7.5YR 4/6) pockets of gravelly silt loam; approximately 25 percent angular and subangular fragments of chert; moderately acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (7 to 10 inches thick)

Bt1--10 to 18 inches; strong brown (7.5YR 4/6) gravelly silt loam; common medium faint strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) mottles; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common very fine and fine roots; many very fine and fine tubular pores throughout; few faint brown (7.5YR 4/4) clay films on faces of peds; common fine dark brown (7.5YR 3/2) manganese stains on faces of peds; approximately 30 percent angular and subangular fragments of chert; neutral; clear smooth boundary.

Bt2--18 to 27 inches; strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) gravelly silt loam; common medium faint brown (7.5YR 5/4) and few fine prominent dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) mottles; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common very fine and fine roots; many fine tubular pores throughout; few faint brown (7.5YR 5/4) clay films on faces of peds and in pores; approximately 25 percent angular and subangular fragments of chert; neutral; clear smooth boundary.(Combined thickness of the Bt horizon is 10 to 50 inches)

BC--27 to 36 inches; strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) very gravelly silt loam; common fine prominent light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4) and few fine prominent dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) mottles; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common very fine and fine roots; many very fine tubular pores throughout; common patchy distinct clay films and silt coatings on fragments; approximately 50 percent angular and subangular fragments of chert; neutral; clear smooth boundary. (Combined thickness of the BC is 0 to 20 inches.)

C--36 to 42 inches; brown (7.5YR 5/4) extremely gravelly loamy coarse sand; single grain; loose; common very fine and fine roots between fragments; common patchy distinct clay films and silt coatings on fragments; approximately 78 percent angular and subangular fragments and 2 percent cobbles of chert; neutral; clear smooth boundary.

2Bt1--42 to 55 inches; strong brown (7.5YR 4/6) gravelly silt loam; common medium distinct yellowish red (5YR 5/6) mottles; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; few very fine roots between peds; many fine and common medium tubular pores throughout; very few distinct discontinuous dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) clay films on faces of peds and in pores; common medium prominent light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4) iron depletions; approximately 30 percent angular and subangular fragments of chert; neutral; gradual smooth boundary.

2Bt3--55 to 80 inches; brown (7.5YR 5/4) gravelly silt loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; few very fine roots between peds; many fine and common medium tubular pores throughout; very few distinct discontinuous dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) clay films on faces of peds; common fine distinct pale brown (10YR 6/3) and common medium distinct light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4) iron depletions between peds; approximately 30 percent angular and subangular fragments of chert; neutral.

TYPE LOCATION: Perry County, Tennessee; from Linden, 10 miles north on TN Highway 13 to King Branch Road, 5 miles west to Strickland Road, 4 miles west, 60 feet south of road in pasture on Turnbow Farm. USGS Pineview Quad; Lat: 35 degrees/40 minutes/48.4 seconds N; Long: 87 degrees/53 minutes/15.4 seconds W.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness ranges from about 30 to 60 inches. Reaction ranges from strongly acid to neutral in each horizon, except where limed. Fragments of chert gravel range from 15 percent to 35 percent in the A, and Bt horizons, from 35 to 60 percent in the BC, and from 35 to 80 percent in the C horizons. A 2Bt horizon is common in many pedons and, where present, fragments range the same as the Bt horizon. Depth to bedrock is greater than 60 inches.

The Ap and A horizon has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 2 through 4. Some pedons have a discontinuous A horizon with value of 3 and chroma of 3, and are less than 7 inches thick. Texture is gravelly silt loam or gravelly loam.

The Bt horizon has hue of 7.5YR, 10YR and rarely 5YR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 4 or 6. Texture is gravelly silt loam, gravelly loam, gravelly silty clay loam, or gravelly clay loam. In some pedons, few to common brownish and yellowish mottles are present.

The BC and C horizon has the range of colors given for the Bt horizon. Texture of the fine earth fraction is extremely variable and includes silty clay loam, clay loam, silt loam, sandy loam, and loamy coarse sand. Few to many yellowish and brownish mottles, and grayish redoximorphic depletions are in the C horizon.

The 2Bt horizon, where present, has colors and texture similar to the Bt horizon. Few to many mottles and redoximorphic depletions are present in this horizon.

COMPETING SERIES: These are the Marsh and Pamunkey series. The Marsh soils are on steep hillsides of the Nashville Basin and formed in colluvium and residuum from thinly bedded sandy limestone interbedded with shale and siltstone. The Pamunkey soils formed in Piedmont and Coastal Plain sediments

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Humphreys soils are on low stream terraces, alluvial fans, and on footslopes. Slopes range from 0 to 12 percent slopes. These soils formed in alluvium and colluvium derived from soils developed mainly in cherty limestone residuum, but in many places it contains materials from siltstone and shale. Near the type location mean annual temperature is 57.5 degrees F.; mean annual precipitation is 55.1 inches.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These include the Etowah, Trace, and Pickwick series on adjacent stream terraces. The Minvale and Pickwick soils have thicker sola and the Trace soils have less than 10 percent fragments in the argillic horizon. The Nolin, Arrington, Cannon, Ennis, Lindside, Hamblen, and Lobelville series are on adjacent floodplains, and lack an argillic horizon. The Minvale and Dellrose series are on footslopes and have thicker sola.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained; medium to very low runoff; moderately rapid permeability.

USE AND VEGETATION: The main crops are hay and pasture, small grains, corn, tobacco, and wheat. The original vegetation was mixed hardwood forests.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Highland Rim and Great Valley regions of Tennessee and northern Alabama.

MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Humphreys County, Tennessee; 1938.

REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons recognized in this pedon are:

Ochric epipedon - 0 to 10 inches (Ap horizon).

Argillic horizons - 10 to 27 inches (Bt1, Bt2 horizons) and 42 to 80 inches (2Bt1, 2Bt2 horizons).
Discontinuity - 36 to 42 inches (C horizon)

National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.