LOCATION MOOSELAKE MNEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Euic, frigid Typic Haplohemists
TYPICAL PEDON: Mooselake mucky peat with a nearly level slope in an elongated bog of about 160 acres on a ground moraine with willow and alder vegetation. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated. The pH is in water.)
Oa--0 to 6 inches; black (5YR 2/1, broken face and rubbed) sapric material; about 30 percent fiber, about 15 percent rubbed; weak fine granular structure; nonsticky; woody fiber; about 15 percent mineral material; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary.
Oe--6 to 72 inches; dark reddish brown (5YR 2/2, broken face and rubbed) hemic material; about 45 percent fiber, about 20 percent rubbed; massive; nonsticky; woody fiber; about 15 percent mineral material; medium acid; abrupt smooth boundary.
TYPE LOCATION: Hubbard County, Minnesota; in an area of Mooselake and Lupton soils, 0 to 1 percent slopes, 2300 feet south and 2550 feet east of the northwest corner, sec. 16, T.145N., R.32W.; USGS Steamboat Lake quadrangle; lat. 47 degrees 22 minutes 28.4 seconds N. and long. 94 degrees 44 minutes 46.5 seconds W., NAD27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The organic soil material extends to depths in excess of 51 inches, commonly to depths of 60 to 100 inches or more. Content of coarse fragments (woody fragments) ranges from 0 to 10 percent with the higher contents commonly being in the upper part of the control section. Reaction (in 0.01 M calcium chloride) in all parts of the subsurface and bottom tiers exceeds 4.5 and commonly is in the range of 5.0 to 7.0.
The surface tier consists of either sapric, hemic, or fibric material or a combination of two or more of those materials.
The subsurface and bottom tiers typically consist entirely of hemic material; however, sapric or fibric materials are present in these tiers in some pedons, but the total thickness of either is less than 10 inches.
The major part of the hemic material in the control section has mostly woody fiber. Such hemic material has on the broken face hue of 5YR through 10YR, value of 2 or 3, and chroma of 2 or 3. The change in color of this material after rubbing compared to that of the broken face is very slight; however, some of this material has chroma as low as 1 after rubbing. The woody fiber is mostly less than 5 mm in size. The content of fiber in the woody hemic material ranges from 35 to 75 percent in the undisturbed condition and 15 to 50 percent after rubbing. The content of mineral material ranges from 10 to 25 percent. Some pedons have hemic material that consists mostly of herbaceous fiber in part to all of the bottom tier.
COMPETING SERIES: These include the Rifle series, which is the only other series in that family and the closely related Greenwood, Lupton, and Spalding series. Rifle and Greenwood soils have hemic material with mostly herbaceous fiber. Also Greenwood soils are more acid. Lupton soils have sapric material dominant in the subsurface tier. Spalding soils are more acid.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Mooselake soils are in bogs within lake plains, outwash plains, and glacial moraines. They have slopes of less than 1 percent. They formed primarily in moderately decomposed woody material that is more than 51 inches thick. Glacial sediments of variable texture underlie this material commonly beginning at depths of 5 to 10 feet. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 24 to 32 inches, and mean annual air temperature ranges from 35 to 42 degrees F.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: The main ones are the more acid Greenwood soils, which occur primarily in less sloping portions of bogs than the Mooselake soils. Associated mineral soils primarily include those developed in reddish, noncalcareous loamy glacial till such as the Ahmeek and Duluth soils and their respective topographic associates.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Very poorly drained. Surface runoff is very slow. Permeability is moderately rapid.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most of this soil is in native vegetation which consists of deciduous-coniferous forest, coniferous forest, or low growing brush. Dominant species are white cedar, black ash, black spruce, tamarack, alder, and willow.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Northeastern Minnesota and possibly northern Wisconsin and Michigan. Moderate extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: St. Paul, Minnesota
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Carlton County, Minnesota, 1973.
ADDITIONAL DATA: Refer to MAES Central File Code Nos. 1447 and 1448 for results of some laboratory analyses of two pedons of this series.