LOCATION LOYPLACE TXEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy, carbonatic, hyperthermic, shallow Ustic Petrocalcids
TYPICAL PEDON: Loyplace loam - rangeland. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise stated.) A surface lag of rounded Cretaceous limestone and subrounded chert fragments cover 50 to 95 percent of the surface
A1--0 to 3 inches; light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4) loam, dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) moist; weak fine and medium subangular blocky structure parting to weak fine and medium granular; slightly hard, friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; common very fine and fine roots; 10 percent rounded limestone gravel; violently effervescent; moderately alkaline; clear smooth boundary. (3 to 10 inches thick)
A2--3 to 7 inches; pale brown (10YR 6/3) loam, brown (10YR 5/3) moist; weak fine and medium subangular blocky structure parting to weak fine and medium granular; weakly cemented; hard, friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; many very fine and fine roots and common medium roots; 10 percent rounded limestone gravel; violently effervescent; moderately alkaline; clear smooth boundary. (0 to 6 inches thick)
Bk--7 to 9 inches; pale brown (10YR 6/3) gravelly loam, brown (10YR 5/3) moist; weak fine and medium subangular blocky structure parting to weak fine and medium granular; hard, friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; common very fine and fine roots; 15 percent subangular calcareous conglomerate gravel, and 10 percent rounded limestone gravel; common prominent continuous white (10YR 8/1) calcium carbonate coatings on lower surfaces of rock fragments; violently effervescent; moderately alkaline; abrupt smooth boundary. (0 to 5 inches thick)
Bkm--9 to 22 inches; moderately cemented caliche in the upper 3 inches, weakly cemented below; vertical fractures are from 6 to 8 inches apart; common very fine and fine roots in fractures; 10 percent rounded limestone gravel and 2 percent rounded limestone cobbles; violently effervescent; moderately alkaline; clear smooth boundary. (6 to 20 inches thick)
BC--22 to 39 inches; very pale brown (10YR 7/3) clay loam, light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4) moist; massive; hard, friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; few very fine and fine roots; violently effervescent; moderately alkaline; clear smooth boundary. (0 to 20 inches thick)
Cr1--39 to 46 inches; moderately cemented weathered shale; common very fine and fine roots in cracks; strata of strongly cemented flaggy limestone 2.5 to 5.0 cm thick; vertical fractures are from 8 to 14 inches apart; violently effervescent; clear smooth boundary.
Cr2--46 to 63 inches; moderately cemented weathered shale; common very fine and fine roots in cracks; strata of strongly cemented flaggy limestone 2.5 to 5.0 cm thick; vertical fractures 8 to 16 inches apart; few fine and medium platelike gypsum crystals in cracks; violently effervescent.
TYPE LOCATION: Brewster County, Texas; from the junction of U.S. Highway 90 and Texas Highway 118 in Alpine, 45.7 miles south on Texas Highway 118, 2.7 miles west on ranch road to stock pens, 3.3 miles west and southwest on ranch road to fence, 1.1 mile west on ranch road, 50 feet northeast of road in range. (Latitude: 29 degrees, 43 minutes, 22 seconds North; Longitude: 103 degrees, 38 minutes, 48 seconds West; NAD 1927). Long Hills USGS 7.5 minute topographic quadrangle.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:
Soil moisture: Typic aridic moisture regime
Depth to a petrocalcic horizon: 6 to 20 inches
Depth to weathered shale bedrock: 20 to 40 inches
Rock fragments: 5 to 35 percent (limestone, caliche, and chert)
Calcium carbonate equivalent: 40 to 60 percent (above the petrocalcic horizon) 40 to 80 percent (below the petrocalcic horizon)
Thickness of the petrocalcic horizon: 6 to 20 inches
A horizon
Hue: 7.5YR, 10YR
Value: 4 through 7, dry or moist
Chroma: 2 through 4, dry or moist
Texture: loam, clay loam
Silicate clay content: 18 to 30 percent
Rock fragments: 5 to 15 percent
Bk or Bw horizons
Hue: 7.5YR, 10YR
Value: 5 through 7, dry or moist
Chroma: 2 through 4, dry or moist
Texture: loam, clay loam
Clay content: 18 to 30 percent
Limestone rock fragments or detached petrocalcic fragments: 5 to 25 percent
Bkm horizon
It is moderately cemented or strongly cemented in the upper part and weakly cemented below.
C horizon
Hue: 7.5YR, 0YR
Value: 6 through 8, dry or moist
Chroma: 2 through 4, dry or moist
Texture: loam, clay loam
Clay content: 20 to 35 percent
Gypsum and shale fragments that slake in water are present in some pedons
Cr horizon
It is moderately cemented shale with thin flaggy limestone interbedded
Gypsum is present in some pedons.
COMPETING SERIES: There are no competing series.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Loyplace soils are on late-Pleistocene age footslopes. These soils formed in residuum and alluvium derived from the Cretaceous age Pen Clay Formation. Slopes are 1 to 8 percent. Mean annual precipitation is 8 to 12 inches, with most occurring from July through September. Mean annual air temperature is 64 to 68 degrees F. Frost free period is 210 to 280 days, and elevation is 3,000 to 5,000 feet.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These include the Cesario, Cheosa, Fizzleflat, Mariscal, and Straddlebug series. Cesario and Fizzleflat soils do not have a petrocalcic horizon. They are on gently sloping erosional plains and pediments below Loyplace soils. Cheosa soils are shallow to very shallow to indurated conglomerate and are higher in the landscape on erosional uplands. Mariscal soils are very shallow and shallow to limestone bedrock and are on adjacent hills. Straddlebug soils are very deep, loamy soils that are on lower Holocene-age alluvial flats.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. Permeability is moderately slow in the surface over a slowly permeable petrocalcic horizon. Runoff is medium on 1 to 5 percent slopes, and high on 5 to 8 percent slopes.
USE AND VEGETATION: This soil is used as livestock grazing. Woody vegetation consists of creosotebush, tarbush, mesquite, whitethorn acacia, wolfberry, and mariola. Grasses in the understory include bush muhly, fluffgrass, chino grama, and threeawns. Characteristic forbs include coldenia and dogweed.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Trans-Pecos Texas in the Southern Desertic Basins, Plains, and Mountains (MLRA 42), Desert Shrub Vegetative Zone. The series is of minor extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Phoenix, Arizona
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Brewster County, Texas; 1997. The name is coined from an abandoned ranch headquarters near the type location.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 7 inches (A horizons)
Petrocalcic horizon - the zone from 9 to 22 inches (Bkm horizon)
Paralithic contact - the boundary at 39 inches (Cr1 horizon)
Classified according to Soil Taxonomy, Second Edition, 1999; Keys to Soil Taxonomy, Tenth Edition, 2006
Moisture and temperature regimes revised for the recorrelation of Brewster County, TX, Main Part, 2/12/08 CEM