LOCATION LIPPITT RIEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, active, mesic Typic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Lippitt gravelly sandy loam - idle field, brushy (Colors are for moist soil).
Ap--0 to 5 inches, dark brown (10YR 3/3) gravelly sandy loam; weak medium granular structure; friable; common fine and medium roots; 30 percent coarse fragments; medium acid; clear wavy boundary. (3 to 8 inches thick)
Bw--5 to 16 inches, brown (7.5YR 5/4) gravelly sandy loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine and medium roots; 30 percent coarse fragments; medium acid; clear wavy boundary. (7 to 18 inches thick)
C--16 to 26 inches, dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) very gravelly sandy loam; massive; friable; few fine roots; 80 percent coarse fragments; medium acid; clear wavy boundary. (8 to 16 inches thick)
Cr--26 to 72 inches, highly weathered gneiss bedrock.
R--72 inches, hard unweathered gneiss bedrock.
TYPE LOCATION: Providence County, Rhode Island; City of Cranston, about 900 feet south of Route 12 at a point about one and one-half miles west of Interstate 295. USGS North Scituate quadrangle, latitude 41 degrees, 46 minutes, 24 seconds N., longitude 71 degrees, 31 minutes, 38 seconds W., NAD 27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness ranges from 10 to 24 inches. No more than one half the particle size control section is loamy sand or coarser. Depth to highly weathered (rippable) bedrock ranges from 20 to 40 inches. Depth to unweathered bedrock is 72 inches or more. Rock fragments, mostly angular gravel, range from 10 to 45 percent in the A horizon, 20 to 50 percent in the B horizon, and from 45 to 80 percent in the C horizon. The soil is very strongly acid to moderately acid throughout.
The A horizon has hues of 7.5YR or 10YR, values of 3 to 5, and chroma of 2 to 4. Texture is fine sandy loam or sandy loam. It has weak, fine, or medium granular structure and very friable or friable consistence.
The B horizon has hues of 7.5YR to 2.5Y, values of 4 or 5, and chroma of 4 to 8. Texture is fine sandy loam or sandy loam. It has weak, fine or medium, granular or subangular blocky structure. Consistence is friable or very friable.
The C horizon has hues of 7.5YR to 5Y, values of 4 to 6, and chroma of 2 to 6. Texture is sandy loam to loamy coarse sand.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Berks, Blasdell, Brownstown, Cadosia, Deadline, Jubin , Manlius, Matewan, Nailkeg, Peaks, Warwick, and Wyoming series.
Brownstown, Deadline, Jubin, Nailkeg, and Peaks series are from outside LRRs R and S.
Berks, Manlius, Matewan, and Nailkeg soils are 20 to 40 inches deep over unweathered bedrock. Nailkeg soils also have mean annual precipitation of more than 110 inches. Blasdell and Peaks soils are more than 40 inches deep to bedrock. Brownstown soils average more than 40 percent silt in the control section. Cadosia soils have rock fragments of sandstone, siltstone, and shale. Deadline soils have rock fragments of schist or phyllite. Jubin soils have a solum thickness more than 80 inches thick. The very deep Warwick and Wyoming soils are formed in water-sorted stratified deposits.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Lippitt soils are nearly level to moderately steep on bedrock controlled landforms modified by glacial action. Slope ranges from 0 to 25 percent. The soils formed in a thin mantle of till over weathered bedrock of gneiss, schist, or granite. Unweathered bedrock is below 72 inches. Areas of Lippitt soils commonly include rock outcrops. The climate is humid and cool temperate. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 40 to 47 inches. Mean annual temperature ranges from 47 to 54 degrees F. The growing season is l30 to l95 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Canton, Charlton, Gloucester, Hollis, Leicester, Narragansett, and Sutton soils on nearby landscapes. Canton, Charlton, Gloucester, Leicester, Narragansett, and Sutton soils are more than 40 inches deep to bedrock. Hollis soils are shallow to bedrock.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Somewhat excessively drained. Runoff is slow or medium. Internal drainage is rapid and permeability is moderately rapid in the solum and rapid in the substratum above consolidated bedrock.
USE AND VEGETATION: Largely in cut-over forests of red, white, black and chestnut oaks, hickory and white pine. Some areas have been cleared and are in pasture, hay or are idle. Scattered areas are mined and the rock fragments are used for surfacing driveways and unpaved roads.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Glaciated uplands in Rhode Island; MLRA 144A. The series is of small extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Providence County, Rhode Island, l977.
REMARKS: Soils of the Lippitt Series have been mapped as inclusions with Hollis soils. More recently, the soils were recognized as a shattered bedrock variant of Hollis Series. Cation exchange activity class was determined from a review of associated soils. Geographic coordinates determined from previous narrative description and published soil survey.
Diagnostic horizons and features in this pedon include:
1. Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 5 inches (Ap horizon);
2. Cambic horizon - the zone from 5 to 16 inches (Bw horizon);
3. Paralithic materials - the zone from 26 to 72 inches (Cr horizon);
4. Lithic contact - occurs at 72 inches (R horizon)