LOCATION MOSHOLU NY
Established Series
RKS-JTI-MCT
01/2014
MOSHOLU SERIES
The Mosholu series consists of very deep, moderately well drained soils with high saturated hydraulic conductivity. These soils form in a mixture of coal combustion bottom ash and unburned coal, and are on anthropogenic landscapes in and near major urbanized areas of the Northeast. Slope ranges from 0 to 8 percent. Mean annual temperature is about 13 degrees C and mean annual precipitation is about 1196 mm.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Sandy, mixed, mesic Aquic Udorthents
TYPICAL PEDON: Mosholu sandy loam on a coal ash pile with a 1 percent slope. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise noted.)
^Au1--0 to 4 cm; black (10YR 2/1) sandy loam; moderate fine granular structure; very friable; common fine and common medium roots; 3 percent gravel-sized coal slag fragments; strongly acid (pH 5.4); abrupt wavy boundary.
^Au2--4 to 10 cm; black (10YR 2/1) coarse sandy loam; weak medium granular structure; friable; few fine and few medium roots; 5 percent gravel-sized metal fragments, 5 percent gravel-sized coal slag fragments, 1 percent gravel-sized glass fragments, 1 percent gravel-sized ceramic fragments, and 1 percent gravel-sized rock fragments; moderately acid (pH 5.6); abrupt wavy boundary.
^Cu1--10 to 20 cm; 40 percent dark gray (2.5Y 4/1), 40 percent grayish brown (2.5Y 5/2) and 20 percent black (N 2.5/) artifactual loamy coarse sand; massive; friable; 29 percent gravel-sized coal slag fragments and 5 percent gravel-sized coal fragments; slightly acid (pH 6.2); abrupt wavy boundary.
^Cu2--20 to 37 cm; 80 percent very dark gray (2.5Y 3/1) and 10 percent dark yellowish brown (10YR 3/6), and 10 percent light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) artifactual loamy coarse sand; massive; firm; 31 percent gravel-sized coal slag fragments and 3 percent gravel-sized coal fragments; slightly acid (pH 6.5); abrupt smooth boundary.
^Cu3--37 to 38 cm; black (5YR 2.5/1) artifacts; massive; firm; 95 percent gravel-sized metal fragments; neutral (pH 6.6); abrupt smooth boundary.
^Cu4--38 to 45 cm; grayish brown (10YR 5/2) artifactual coarse sandy loam; massive; firm; 18 percent gravel-sized coal slag fragments, 3 percent gravel-sized coal fragments, and 1 percent gravel-sized glass fragments; slightly acid (pH 6.1); abrupt irregular boundary.
^Cu5--45 to 72 cm; grayish brown (10YR 5/2) artifactual loamy coarse sand; massive; firm; 15 percent gravel-sized coal fragments and 12 percent gravel-sized coal slag fragments; slightly acid (pH 6.3); abrupt irregular boundary.
^Cu6--72 to 143 cm; 85 percent dark brown (7.5YR 3/3) and 15 percent dark reddish brown (5YR 3/4) artifactual coarse sand; massive; firm; 22 percent gravel-sized coal slag fragments, and 3 percent gravel-sized glass fragments; neutral (pH 6.8).
2^Cu7--143 to 160 cm; black (5YR 2.5/1) very fine sandy loam; 12 percent cobble-sized rubber fragments; massive; friable; neutral (pH 6.8).
3Cg--160 to 175 cm; very dark gray (5Y 3/1) silt loam; massive; friable; neutral (pH 6.8).
TYPE LOCATION: Bronx County, New York; Van Cortland Park; USGS Yonkers, NY topographic quadrangle; Latitude 40 degrees, 54 minutes, 20.3 seconds N and Longitude 74 degrees, 53 minutes, 39.9 seconds W, NAD 1983.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The thickness of the coal ash materials is generally more than 120 cm thick. The pieces are very porous and glassy, similar to volcanic materials. The fine-earth fraction includes smaller pieces of coal and slag, and the textures include sandy loam or coarser. Gravel-sized rock-like pieces of burned slag range from 10 to 75 percent.
The ^Au horizon may be composed of more loamy materials than below, either from filling or slopewash from surrounding areas. Colors are hue 5YR to 2.5Y, including neutral, value of 2 to 6, and chroma of 0 to 8. Structure is single grain or massive, except in surface horizons that include granular and subangular blocky. Consistence is typically loose or very friable, but can range to firm where heavily compacted. Reaction ranges from strongly acid to moderately alkaline. A thin organic layer may be found above the ^Au horizon.
The ^C horizons have hue 5YR to 2.5Y, including neutral, value of 2 to 6, and chroma of 0 to 8. Structure is single grain or massive, except in surface horizons that include granular and subangular blocky. Consistence is typically loose or very friable, but can range to firm where heavily compacted. Reaction ranges from strongly acid to moderately alkaline.
C or Cg horizons, where present, formed in the native buried parent material beneath the mantle of coal ash and slag deposits. Colors are hue 5YR to 2.5Y, including neutral, value of 2 to 6, and chroma of 0 to 8. Textures include sandy loam to silt loam. Rock fragments range from 0 to 20 percent. Structure is single grain or massive, except in surface horizons that include granular and subangular blocky. Consistence is typically loose or very friable, but can range to firm where heavily compacted. Reaction ranges from strongly acid to moderately alkaline.
COMPETING SERIES: The only soil in the same family is the
Acton series. Acton soils are not formed in human transported materials and do not have fragments of coal slag or coal in the soil.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Mosholu soils are on nearly level to gently sloping artificially created landforms in coal ash piles, railroad yards, and filled areas. These soils have formed in a mixture of coal slag and unburned coal fragments, often used to fill wet areas. Slope ranges from 0 to 8 percent. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 1021 to 1325 mm. Mean annual temperature ranges from 8 to 17 degrees C.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: Other soils on anthropogenic landscapes include somewhat excessively drained
Rikers soils, formed in similar materials; loamy-skeletal well drained
Laguardia and moderately well drained
Secaucus soils, formed in a mixture of construction debris and human transported soil material, and coarse loamy well drained
Greenbelt and moderately well drained
North Meadow soils formed in human transported soil materials with less than 10 percent human artifacts.
DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Moderately well drained. The potential for surface runoff is very low. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is high in the coarse textured coal ash and slag materials and moderately low to moderately high in the finer textured substratum, if present.
USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are generally densely covered with mugwort, Golden Rod, Black locust, Ailanthus, wild mustard, and Japanese knotweed. Secondary successional species include black cherry, sweetgum, aspen, birch, and Virginia creeper.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: These soils occur on modified landscapes in and near major urbanized areas of the Northeast, MLRAs 144A and 149B. The soils of this series are small extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts.
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Bronx County, New York, 2014. Series proposed in Bronx County, New York, 2011. "Mosholu" is an Algonquin Indian word meaning "smooth stones" or "small stones" and was first applied to the nearby creek now known as Tibbett's Brook.
REMARKS: Coal ash supplies accumulated over more than one hundred years of time when hard coal was the main source of heating and producer of heat for production of electricity. The material often contains debris tossed into furnaces during burning. Areas used as railroad beds contain buried railroad ties and large pieces of coal used as ballast.
Mosholu soils often exhibit an irregular decrease in organic carbon with depth; however this is a result of anthropogenic filling (deposition) not alluvial deposition, excluding them from the concept of Fluvents. Proposed revisions to soil taxonomy in ICOMANTH Circular Letter 7 developed for anthropogenic soils will help to clarify this difference.
Reaction for the 2C^u7 and 3Cg horizons is estimated based on preliminary lab data for adjacent horizons due to the lack of reported field or lab data.
Complete full characterization data was collected as pedon S2011NY005002.
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon include:
1. Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 10 cm (^Au and ^Au2 horizons).
2. Particle size - fragments, primarily coal slag and unburned coal, average less than 35 percent by volume in the zone from 25 cm to 100 cm (^Au1, ^Au2, ^Cu1, ^Cu2, ^Cu3, ^Cu4, ^Cu5, and part of the ^Cu6 horizon).
3. Aquic subgroup - saturation within 100 cm of the mineral soil surface. Evidence of saturation in the form of redoximorphic depletions within 100 cm. was difficult to determine in the field based on morphology for these parent materials. After review in the field and further discussions a decision was made regarding subgroup placement based on setting and recorded evidence of field observation of seasonal water tables in several sites that indicated a predominance of wetness and presence of aquic conditions within 100 cm (versus 150 cm). The mean and median of the physical site measurements were both less than 100 cm.
ADDITIONAL DATA: Reference samples from pedon S2011NY005002 from Bronx County, New York, samples by KSSL, Lincoln, NE, 2013.
National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.