LOCATION LEADVALE TN+AL AR GA MDEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, siliceous, semiactive, thermic Typic Fragiudults
TYPICAL PEDON: Leadvale silt loam--pasture. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated.)
Ap--0 to 8 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) silt loam; weak medium granular structure; friable; many roots; medium acid; clear smooth boundary. (5 to 10 inches thick)
Bt--8 to 23 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) silt loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine roots; few fine black concretions; few faint clay films on faces of peds; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (10 to 28 inches thick)
Btx--23 to 48 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) silty clay loam; common fine and medium distinct strong brown (7.5YR 5/6), light brownish gray (10YR 6/2), and pale brown (10YR 6/3) mottles; weak thick platy structure, parting to moderate medium subangular blocky structure; firm and brittle; few fine dark brown and black concretions; few faint clay films on faces of peds; few channels of gray silty clay, and fine pockets of gray silt; very strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (15 to 35 inches thick)
B't--48 to 58 inches; light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4) silty clay; common fine and coarse distinct strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) and light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) mottles; weak coarse angular blocky structure; very firm; few fine dark brown and black concretions; few fine soft fragments of shale; few faint clay films; very strongly acid. (0 to 24 inches thick)
R--58 inches; acid shale.
TYPE LOCATION: Bradley County, Tennessee; 3.0 miles east of Cleveland, 0.5 mile west of Macedonia Church.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Depth to fragipan ranges from 16 to 38 inches. Depth to rock, most commonly shale, ranges from about 4 to more than 8 feet. Solum thickness ranges from 40 to 60 inches. Weathered shale fragments or pebbles in each horizon of the solum range from 0 to about 10 percent by volume. Reaction is strongly acid or very strongly acid except where limed. Base saturation below the Ap horizon is less than 35 percent, and most commonly it is less than 20 percent.
The Ap horizon has hue of 10YR, value of 4 to 6 and chroma of 2 or 3. Some pedons have A horizons less than 6 inches thick that have hue of 10YR, value of 2 or 3 and chroma of 1 or 2. Texture is silt loam or rarely loam or fine sandy loam.
Some pedons have a thin transitional horizon with similar color and texture to the adjacent horizons. The Bt horizon has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 5 or 6 and chroma of 4 to 8. Some pedons have brown and red mottles, and in some pedons there is a 3 to 5 inch thick layer just above the fragipan which has mottles of chroma of 2 or less. Texture is silt loam, loam, or silty clay loam, which contains between 20 and 32 percent clay and from about 3 to 15 percent fine sand and coarser.
The Btx horizon has hue of 7.5YR to 2.5Y, value of 5 or 6 and chroma of 4 to 8. Some pedons lack a matrix color and are mottled. The Bx horizon is silt loam or silty clay loam. The characteristics of the horizon below the fragipan are variable. This horizon ranges from a C horizon having massive or coarse platy relict rock structure and few to many shale fragments to a Bt horizon having blocky structure and clay films. Color is similar to the Btx horizon. It is silty clay loam, silty clay, or clay.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Lax, and Shatta series. Lax soils have sola with a gravelly lithologic discontinuity in the lower portion. Shatta soils have fine sandy loam to sandy clay loam textures below the fragipan.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Leadvale soils are on slightly concave toeslopes, benches, and terraces. Slope gradients are mostly between 2 and 7 percent and range from 0 to 15 percent. They formed in silty materials in the uplands or local silty alluvium from nearby uplands underlain largely by shale and siltstone. In some places in the watershed, there are sandstone, phyllite, and slate. Average annual air temperature is 59.1 degrees F. and average annual rainfall is 50 inches near the type location.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Armuchee, Enders, Litz, Montevallo, and Sequoia series. All of these soils are on higher lying adjacent hills and ridges. None of these soils have a fragipan. In addition, Armuchee, Enders, and Sequoia soils have a clayey control section. Litz and Montevallo soils are loamy-skeletal.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Leadvale soils are moderately well drained. Runoff is slow or medium and permeability is slow or moderately slow. A perched water table is at a depth of 2 to 3 feet late in Winter and early in the spring.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are cleared. The main crops are hay, pasture, small grains, and some tobacco and cotton. Forested areas are mostly hardwoods, oaks, hickories, maple, beech, and elm, and some shortleaf, loblolly, and Virginia pine
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Valley of East Tennessee, northwest Georgia, Arkansas, Maryland, and northeast Alabama. The series in of large extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Jefferson County, Tennessee; 1936.
REMARKS: Diagnostic features recognized in this pedon are:
Ochric epipedon - 0 to 8 inches (Ap horizon)
Argillic horizon - 8 to 58 inches (Bt, Btx, and B't horizons)
Fragipan horizon - 23 to 48 inches (Btx horizon)
Additional remarks - The Leadvale series was classified as a Red-Yellow Podzolic soil with a fragipan.