LOCATION MELOCHE NM
Established Series
Rev. PGM/BDS/RJS
11/2016
MELOCHE SERIES
Typically, Meloche soils have dark grayish brown, stony silty clay loam A horizons, brown and dark brown clay B horizons, and pale brown, silty clay C horizons.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, mixed, superactive, mesic Aridic Haplustolls
TYPICAL PEDON: Meloche stony silty clay loam, rangeland. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise noted.)
A1--0 to 9 inches; dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) stony silty clay loam, dark brown (10YR 3/3) moist; strong fine granular structure; very hard, very firm, sticky, very plastic; many fine roots; many fine interstitial pores; 35 percent stones, cobbles, and pebbles; slightly alkaline; clear smooth boundary. (4 to 10 inches thick)
B1--9 to 13 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) clay, dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) moist; moderate fine subangular blocky structure; very hard, very firm, sticky, very plastic; common fine roots; few fine tubular pores; few pressure faces; calcareous; moderately alkaline; clear smooth boundary. (4 to 10 inches thick)
B21--13 to 23 inches; brown (10YR 5/3) clay, brown (10YR 4/3) moist; moderate coarse subangular blocky structure; extremely hard, very firm, sticky, very plastic; few fine roots; few fine tubular pores; many pressure faces; calcareous; moderately alkaline; gradual smooth boundary. (6 to 16 inches thick)
B22a--23 to 32 inches; brown (10YR 5/3) clay, yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) moist; moderate coarse subangular blocky structure; extremely hard, very firm, sticky, very plastic; few fine roots; few fine tubular pores; many pressure faces; few slickensides; strongly calcareous; few fine irregular filaments and soft masses of lime; moderately alkaline; gradual smooth boundary. (6 to 14 inches thick)
C1ca--32 to 56 inches; pale brown (10YR 6/3) silty clay, yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) moist; massive; very hard, very firm, sticky, very plastic; few fine roots; few fine tubular pores; many pressure faces; strongly calcareous, common medium and large soft lime masses and irregular filaments, lime coating on rock fragments; 5 percent cobbles; moderately alkaline; abrupt smooth boundary. (5 to 24 inches thick)
Cr--56 to 63 inches; very pale brown (10YR 8/2) shale, pale brown (10YR 6/3) moist.
TYPE LOCATION: Colfax County, New Mexico; about 1,630 feet south and 900 feet east of the northwest corner of section 31, T.28N., R.26E.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The mean annual soil temperature ranges from 47 to 53 degrees F. and the mean summer soil temperature is about 66 degrees F. The solum ranges from 30 to 50 inches thick. Interbedded sandstone and shale occur at a depth of more than 40 inches. Surface cover of rock fragments ranges from 30 to 80 percent with stones making up about 40 percent, cobbles about 40 percent, and pebbles about 20 percent. The soil moisture control section is dry in some part for more than 90 cumulative days in most years, but it is not dry in all parts more than 1/2 of the time that the soil temperature exceeds 41 degrees F. at a depth of 20 inches. The A horizon has value of 3 or 4 dry, 2 or 3 moist, and chroma of 2 or 3 dry or moist. It is loam, clay loam, or silty clay loam. Rock fragments range from 20 to 35 percent. This horizon is mildly or moderately alkaline. The B horizon has hue of 10YR or 7.5YR, value of 4 through 6 dry, 3 through 5 moist, and chroma of 2 through 4 dry and moist. It is clay, silty clay, or clay loam with 35 to 60 percent clay and 0 to 25 percent pebbles and cobbles. This horizon ranges from noncalcareous in the upper part to strongly calcareous in the lower part. It is mildly to moderately alkaline. The C horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5YR. It is clay, silty clay, or clay loam. Shale fragments range from 0 to 35 percent and increase with increasing depth.
COMPETING SERIES AND THEIR DIFFERENTIAE: These are the Bagley, Buffington, Colmor, Jacques, Lane, Rune, Thurloni, and Ulysses series. Bagley, Jacques, Lane and Rune soils have mollic epipedons 20 or more inches thick. Buffington soils lack a cambric horizon. Colmor and Ulysses soils have a fine, silty control section. Thurloni soils have hue redder than 7.5YR and a paralithic contact at depths of 20 to 40 inches.
SETTING: Meloche soils are on mountain slopes at elevations of 7,000 to 8,500 feet. Slopes range from 15 to 55 percent. The soils formed mostly in fine textured colluvial deposits from shale, sandstone, igneous rocks. The climate is semiarid. The mean annual temperature is 45 to 66 degrees F. and the mean summer temperature is 60 to 66 degrees F. The annual precipitation ranges from 14 to 18 inches with about 70 percent falling during the frost free period.
PRINCIPAL ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Oro Grande, Baller and Tafoya soils. Oro Grande and Baller soils are shallower than 20 inches to bedrock and have a skeletal section. Tafoya soils have an argillic horizon and a clayey, skeletal control section.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained; rapid runoff; very slow permeability.
USE AND VEGETATION: Used for native range, wildlife, recreation and watershed. The principal plants are pinyon, juniper, oak, mountain mahogany, little bluestem, sideoats grama and western wheatgrass.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Northern New Mexico. The series is inextensive.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Bozeman, Montana
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Colfax County, New Mexico, 1974.
REMARKS:
The superactive cation exchange activity class was added in 03/2003 to the taxonomic classification by the National Soil Survey Center on request of the Reno MLRA office, without review of the soil series property data. The remainder of this document has not been updated.
11/2016 - Typos were corrected in the opening paragraph. The remainder of this document was not reviewed.
National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.