LOCATION MIDAS                   NV

Established Series
Rev: ELS/JBF
03/2016

MIDAS SERIES

The Midas series consists of very deep, well drained soils that formed in silty alluvium and loess over very gravelly alluvium. The Midas soils are on alluvial fan toe slopes and have about l percent slopes. The mean annual precipitation is about 200 mm and the mean annual air temperature is about 9 degrees C.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, superactive, mesic Durinodic Haplocambids

TYPICAL PEDON: Midas silt loam, rangeland. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise noted.)

A--0 to 10 cm; pale brown (10YR 6/3) silt loam, dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) moist; moderate thin and medium platy structure; soft, very friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; many fine and very fine roots; many fine and very fine, and few medium vesicular pores; neutral (pH 7.0); clear smooth boundary. (5 to 10 cm thick)

Bw1--10 to 28 cm; pale brown (10YR 6/3) silt loam, brown (10YR 4/3) moist; massive; soft, very friable, nonsticky and nonplastic; common very fine and fine roots; many very fine, and few fine tubular pores; slightly alkaline (pH 7.6); clear smooth boundary. (13 to 25 cm thick)

Bw2--28 to 53 cm; pale brown (10YR 6/3) silt loam, brown (10YR 4/3) moist; massive; slightly hard, friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; common very fine and fine roots; common very fine tubular, and few fine interstitial pores; few thin clay films in pores; slightly alkaline (pH 7.6); abrupt smooth boundary. (15 to 25 cm thick)

2Bqkm--53 to 76 cm; variegated pale brown (10YR 6/3) and very pale brown (10YR 8/2) very extremely fine sandy loam that is weakly silica and carbonate-cemented brown (10YR 4/3) and light gray (10YR 7/2) moist; massive; very hard, firm, nonsticky and nonplastic; very few very fine roots; few very fine tubular pores; 45 percent gravel and 20 percent cobbles; strongly effervescent; strongly alkaline (pH 8.6); gradual wavy boundary. (20 to 60 cm thick)

3C--76 to 127 cm; variegated brown (10YR 5/3) to black (10YR 2/1) extremely gravelly coarse sand, dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) and black (10YR 2/1) moist; single grained; loose, nonsticky and nonplastic; few very fine roots; many very fine and fine interstitial pores; 65 percent gravel; slightly alkaline (pH 7.6).

TYPE LOCATION: Eureka County, Nevada; about 12 miles north of Dunphy and 1 1/2 miles east in the north end of Boulder Valley; 250 feet west and 250 feet south of the NE corner of sec. 32, T.35N., R.49E.; USGS Rodeo Creek SW 7.5 minute topographic quadrangle; latitude 41 degrees 25 minutes 17 seconds N and longitude 119 degrees 49 minutes 21 seconds W; WGS84 Decimal Degrees 40.8727778 latitude, -116.4641667 longitude.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:
Soil moisture: Usually dry, intermittently moist in winter and spring; typic aridic soil moisture regime.
Mean annual soil temperature: 10 to 11 degrees C.
Depth to unconformable very gravelly loamy material: 40 to 60 cm.
Depth to very gravelly sandy material: 70 to 114 cm.

Particle-size control section - Clay content: Averages less than 18 percent.
Rock fragments: Average 35 to 50 percent gravel and 5 to l5 percent cobbles.

A horizon
Value: 3 or 4 moist.
Chroma: 2 or 3.
Soil structure: Weak or moderate thin or medium platy structure or is massive.

Bw horizon
Texture: Commonly silt loam but subhorizons in some pedons are loam or very fine sandy loam Silt loam, loam or very fine sandy loam.
Structure: Weak medium or coarse subangular structure or is massive.

2Cqk horizon
Value: 6 through 8 dry, 2 through 7 moist.
Chroma: 2 or 3.
Texture: Fine sandy loam or sandy loam.
Texture modifier: Extremely gravelly.
Rock fragments: Gravel ranges from 50 to 75 percent and cobbles from l5 to 25 percent.
Cementation: Continuously weakly cemented.
Consistence: Hard or very hard.

3C horizon
Value: 2 through 5 dry, 2 through 4 moist.
Chroma: 1 through 3.
Rock fragments: 50 to 75 percent gravel.
Texture modifier: Very gravelly or extremely gravelly.
Reaction: Slightly alkaline through strongly alkaline.

COMPETING SERIES: There are no other series in this family.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: The Midas soils are on toe slopes of alluvial fans. Elevations are 1,370 to 1,495 meters. Slopes are 0 to 2 percent. These soils formed in silty alluvium and loess with moderate amounts of pyroclastic material over mixed very gravelly loamy and sandy alluvium. The average annual temperature is 8 to 9 degrees C.; average annual precipitation is 175 to 200 mm; and frost-free season is about l00 to l05 days.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the McConnel, Pocker and Rad soils. McConnel soils have contrasting textures of sand and gravel within 50 cm. Pocker soils have fine textured particle-size control sections. Rad soils have coarse-silty particle-size control sections.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained; slow runoff; slow permeability; moderately high saturated hydraulic conductivity.

USE AND VEGETATION: Used mainly for livestock grazing and wildlife habitat, but some is cropped to irrigated alfalfa hay. The vegetation is principally big sagebrush, bud sagebrush and cheatgrass. Range fires have periodically burned most of the areas used for grazing.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: North-central Nevada. These soils are of limited extent. MLRA 24.

MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Davis, California

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Eureka County (Tuscarora Mountain Area), Nevada, l965.

REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in the pedon are:
Ochric epipedon - The zone from the surface to 18 cm (A and part of Bw1 horizon).
Cambic horizon - The zone from about 10 to 53 cm (Bw1 and Bw2 horizon).
Duric horizon - The zone from 53 to 76 cm (2Bqkm horizon).
Particle-size control section - The zone from 25 to 100 cm (2Cqkm and portions of the Bw2 and 3C horizons).

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National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.