LOCATION LASITA KS

Tentative Series
PLA WAW
12/2010

LASITA SERIES

The Lasita series consists of moderately deep, well drained, soils that formed in loess over residuum weathered from calcareous shales. These soils are on hillslopes in uplands in MLRA 74 and 75. Slopes range from 3 to 10 percent. Mean annual temperature is about 13 degrees C (55 degrees F), and mean annual precipitation is about 790 milimeters (31 inches).

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, smectitic, mesic Udic Argiustolls

TYPICAL PEDON: Lasita silty clay loam - in native range. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise stated.)

A--0 to 24 cm (0 to 9 inches); very dark brown (10YR 2/2) interior, silty clay loam, very dark gray (10YR 3/1) interior, dry; moderate medium granular structure; friable, slightly hard; many fine roots throughout; slightly acid; clear smooth boundary. Lab sample # 83P3645

Bt1--24 to 43 cm (9 to 17 inches); very dark brown (10YR 2/2) interior, silty clay, very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) interior, dry; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; firm, hard; common fine roots throughout; slightly acid; gradual smooth boundary. Lab sample # 83P3646

Bt2--43 to 75 cm (17 to 30 inches); brown (10YR 4/3) interior, silty clay loam, brown (10YR 5/3) interior, dry; moderate fine subangular blocky structure; firm, hard; common fine roots throughout; very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) organic stains on faces of peds; slightly acid; clear wavy boundary. Lab sample # 83P3647

2BC--75 to 81 cm (30 to 32 inches); dark grayish brown (2.5Y 4/2) interior, silt loam, grayish brown (2.5Y 5/2) interior, dry; weak fine subangular blocky structure; friable, hard; few fine roots throughout; 2 percent 2 to 75 millimeter rock fragments; slight effervescence, moderately alkaline; clear wavy boundary. Lab sample #83P3648

2Cr--81 to 110 cm (32 to 43 inches); light brownish gray (2.5Y 6/2) interior, weathered calcareous shale bedrock, light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) interior, moist; moderately alkaline. Lab sample # 83P3649

TYPE LOCATION: Clay County, Kansas; about 2 miles west and 2 1/2 miles south of Green; 259 meters north and 46 meters east of the southwest corner, sec. 31, T. 7 S., R. 4 E.; USGS Clay Center NE Kansas topographic quadrangle; lat. 39 degrees 23 minutes 45 seconds N. and long. 97 degrees 2 minutes 0 seconds W.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:

Soil moisture: The soil moisture control section is intermittently moist throughout the year, it is wettest in April, May, and June, driest in July, August and Sepember; ustic moisture regime bordering on udic.
Soil Temperature: 12 to 16 degrees C.
Depth to paralithic contact: 50 to 100 cm (20 to 40 inches).
Depth to argillic horizon: 15 to 35 cm (6 to 14 inches).
Depth to lithologic discontinuity: 38 to 90 cm (15 to 36 inches).
Thickness of the mollic epipedon: 20 to 50 cm (8 to 20 inches).

Particle-size control section (weighted average):
Clay content: 35 to 45 percent
Sand content: 3 to 15 percent

A horizon:
Hue: of 7.5YR, 10YR, or 2.5Y
Value: 3 to 5 dry, 2 or 3 moist
Chroma: 1 or 2 dry or moist
Texture: silty clay loam, or silt loam
Clay content: 25 to 35 percent
Reaction: slightly acid to slightly alkaline

Bt horizon:
Hue: 5YR, to 10YR
Value: 4 to 6 dry, 3 to 5 moist
Chroma of 2 to 6 dry or moist
Texture: silty clay, or silty clay loam.
Clay content: 35 to 50 percent
Reaction: slightly acid to moderately alkaline

2BC horizon:
Hue: 5YR to 5Y
Value: 5 to 7 dry, 4 to 6 moist
Chroma: 2 to 4 dry or moist
Texture: silt loam, silty clay loam, or silty clay.
Clay content: 22 to 42 percent.
Rock or pararock fragments: 0 to 12 percent, 2 to 75 mm diameter, shale or limestone.
Reaction: slightly alkaline or moderately alkaline

COMPETING SERIES: These are the Hastings and Longford series of the same family. Hastings and Longford soils do not have a lithic or paralithic contact within 150 cm.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Lasita soils are on uplands. The slope gradient commonly is 3 to 10 percent. The soils formed in loess over residuum weathered from varicolored, calcareous shales, mostly of Permian age. The mean annual temperature ranges from 10 to 14 degress C (50 to 58 degrees F), and the mean annual precipitation ranges from 660 to 860 mm (26 to 34 inches). Thornthwaites Annual PE Index ranges from 46 to 56.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Crete, Clime, Kipson, and Sogn soils. Crete soils are deep and have mollic epipedons greater than 50 cm thick. They are on similar topographic positions. Clime soils do not have an argillic horizon. They are on similar topographic positions. The shallow Kipson and Sogn soils are on similar topographic positions as Lasita soils.

DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Well drained. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately low.

USE AND VEGETATION: About half of the area is cultivated to wheat or grain sorghum, the rest is used for rangeland. Native vegetation is tall prairie grasses.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Dominantly in the northernmost Central Kansas Sandstone Hills, LRR H; MLRA 74, and bordering Central Loess Plains MLRA 75.

MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Denver, Colorado

SERIES PROPOSED: Clay County, Kansas, 2006

REMARKS:
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
Mollic epipedon the zone from 0 to 43 cm (A1, and Bt1 horizons)
Argillic horizon the zone from 24 to 75 cm (Bt1, and Bt2, horizons)
Paralithic contact: the contact with shale at 81 cm.
Lithologic discontinuity: at the upper boundary of the 2BC horizon at 75 cm.
Smectitic mineralogy supported by CEC/clay and LEP/clay ratios.

These soils were formerly mapped as Benfield soils. The central concept of Benfield soils are soils in the Flint Hills that are formed in cherty hillslope sediments over shale.
12/10 WAW revised range in characteristics to include soil moisture, changed precipitation to milimeters, revised competing series section.

ADDITIONAL DATA:
NSSL Laboratory sample 83P0735; (pedon 83KS027001); Kansas State University Soil Characterization Laboratory samples 3217-3225; (pedons 05KS027001, and 05KS027018).

National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.