LOCATION KENO NMEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, mixed, superactive, thermic Vertic Haplocambids
TYPICAL PEDON: Keno cobbly clay, rangeland. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise noted.)
A--0 to 4 inches; brown (7.5YR 5/3) cobbly clay loam, brown (7.5YR 4/3) moist; moderate fine granular structure; soft, very friable, sticky, plastic; many fine and very fine roots; many fine and very fine pores; strongly calcareous, lime is disseminated; 25 percent basalt gravel and cobbles; moderately alkaline; clear smooth boundary. (2 to 6 inches thick)
Bss--4 to 25 inches; brown (7.5YR 5/2) clay, brown (7.5YR 4/2) moist; weak medium subangular blocky structure; very hard, firm, very sticky, plastic; common fine and very fine roots; few tubular pores; few slickensides; few cracks 1 to 1 1/2 cm wide throughout when dry; strongly calcareous, lime is disseminated; moderately alkaline; clear wavy boundary. (18 to 34 inches thick)
2Ck--25 to 48 inches; light brown (7.5YR 6/4) gravelly clay loam, brown (7.5YR 4/4) moist; massive; hard, friable, sticky, plastic; strongly calcareous, lime segregated as coatings on pebbles moderately alkaline.
TYPE LOCATION: Hidalgo County, New Mexico; 500 feet north of SE corner section 20, T.21S., R.21W.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:
Rock fragments on the surface: 15 to 40 percent cover of gravel and cobbles with few stones.
Soil temperature: 59 to 71.6 degrees F.
Soil moisture: Typic aridic moisture regime.
A horizon
Hue: 7.5YR or 10YR
Value: 5 through 7 dry, 3 or 4 moist
Chroma: 2 through 4
Structure: weak and moderate fine and medium platy or granular
Bss horizon
Hue: 5YR through 10YR
Value: 4 through 6 dry, 3 through 5 moist
Chroma: 2 through 5
Texture: clay loam or clay
Structure: weak medium and coarse subangular blocky structure
Slickensides: Most pedons have slickensides
2Ck horizon
Hue: 5YR through 10YR
Value: 5 through 7 dry, 4 through 6 moist
Chroma: 3 or 4
Texture: gravelly loam to gravelly clay.
COMPETING SERIES: There are no competing series.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: The Keno soils are on moderately sloping old alluvial fans and alluvial fan piedmonts. The soils formed in moderately fine and fine textured materials from mixed igneous parent rock. The solum appears to have had some influence from basic igneous rocks whereas the 2Ck horizon and underlying material appear derived from acid igneous rocks. The climate is semiarid continental. At the type location the mean annual temperature is about 61 degrees F. and the average annual precipitation is about 10 inches. The Thornthwaite P-E Index is about 14.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the competing Mimbres soils and the Continental and Mohave soils. Continental and Mohave soils have argillic horizons and Mohave soils contain less than 35 percent clay in the control section.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained; medium to slow runoff; very slow permeability.
USE AND VEGETATION: Principal use is native rangeland. Vegetation is tobosa, yucca, allthorn, snakeweed, and Mormon tea.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southwestern New Mexico adjacent to Arizona. The series is of small extent in New Mexico. MLRA is 42.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Phoenix, Arizona
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Hildalgo County, New Mexico, 1973.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
Ochric epipedon - The zone from 0 to 4 inches (A horizon)
Cambic horizon - The zone from 4 to 25 inches (Bss horizon)
Classified according to Soil Taxonomy Second Edition, 1999