LOCATION MOUNDPRAIRIE MN+ILEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, superactive, calcareous, mesic Mollic Fluvaquents
TYPICAL PEDON: Moundprairie silty clay loam with a plane level slope on a flood plain in a cultivated field. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated.)
Ap--0 to 10 inches; very dark gray (10YR 3/1) silty clay loam, gray (10YR 5/1) dry; common fine distinct dark brown (7.5YR 4/4) mottles; weak very fine granular structure; friable; few very fine roots; slight effervescence; mildly alkaline; clear smooth boundary. (7 to 10 inches thick)
Cg--10 to 40 inches; very dark gray (10YR 3/1) silt loam, gray (10YR 5/1) dry; with thin strata of dark gray (10YR 4/1) silt loam; gray (10YR 6/1) dry; common fine distinct dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) mottles; laminated; very friable; few very fine roots in upper part; strong effervescence; mildly alkaline; clear smooth boundary. (10 to 50 inches thick)
Ab1--40 to 56 inches; black (N 2/0) silty clay loam, very dark gray (10YR 3/1) dry; weak very fine subangular blocky structure; friable; neutral; clear smooth boundary. (10 to 22 inches thick)
Ab2--56 to 60 inches; very dark gray (N 3/0) silty clay loam; dark gray (10YR 4/1) dry; weak very fine subangular blocky structure; friable, neutral.
TYPE LOCATION: Houston County, Minnesota; about 1/2 mile south of the hamlet of Mound Prairie; 1,300 feet east and 100 feet north of the southwest corner of sec. 28 T., 104 N., R. 5 W.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The thickness of the recent silty alluvial sediments and depth to the buried soil is 20 to 60 inches. The recent sediments are calcareous in all parts and have a calcium carbonate equivalent of 1 to 10 percent. The control section has 18 to 35 percent clay, typically 20 to 30, and less than 15 percent of fine sand and coarser particles.
The Ap horizon is 10YR 3/1 or 2/1 and lacks mottles in some pedons. It typically is silt loam or silty clay loam but ranges to loam in a few pedons. It has slight or strong effervescence.
The Cg horizon typically has a hue of 10YR but hue of 2.5Y is in the range. It has a dominant value of 3 and chroma of 1 but it has strata with value of 4 or 5 and chroma of 1 or 2. It has few through many mottles. It typically is silt loam or silty clay loam but the lighter colored strata typically have less clay or more sand or both than the darker colored strata. It has slight or strong effervescence.
The Ab horizon is N 2/0 or N 3/0 or has hue of 10YR through 5Y, value of 2 or 3, and chroma of 1. It typically is silt loam or silty clay loam, but has loam or clay loam subhorizons in some pedons and in other pedons, where recent sediments are thick, the Ab may be loam or clay loam throughout. It has slight effervescence in some pedons. It is neutral or mildly alkaline. Some pedons have buried B horizons.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Blue Earth series in the same family and the similar Chaska, Newalbin, and Rawles series. Blue Earth soils formed in coprogrenous earth. Chaska soils have more than 15 percent fine sand and coarser. Newalbin soils are coarse-silty. Rawles soils are moderately well drained.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Moundprairie soils have plane or concave slopes on flood plains. They have slopes of 0 to 1 percent. They formed in 20 to 60 inches of calcareous recent silty alluvial sediments. These sediments overlie a buried soil. Mean annual temperature is 47 to 52 degrees F, and mean annual precipitation is 28 to 34 inches.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Minneiska and Rawles series. Moderately well drained Minneiska soils are coarse-loamy and are on slightly higher parts of flood plains. Moderately well drained Rawles soils are on slightly higher parts of flood plains and are further from stream channels than Minneiska soils.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Poorly and very poorly drained. Runoff is slow or ponded. Permeability is moderate. These soils are occasionally flooded for brief periods in some years.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most of the poorly drained phase of these soils are used for cropland. Corn and soybeans are the principal crops. Most of the very poorly drained phase is in native vegetation. Native vegetation is mixed deciduous forest on the poorly drained phase and reeds, sedges, cattails, willows, and scattered cottonwoods on the very poorly drained phase.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southeastern Minnesota and possibly adjacent parts of Iowa and Wisconsin. These soils are of minor extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Indianapolis, Indiana
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Houston County, Minnesota, 1981.
REMARKS: The Moundprairie soils were included with Chaska soils in some past mapping. In other places, they were carried as an unnamed unit.