LOCATION NEEDLE                  AZ+NM UT

Established Series
Rev. DAL/AJE
06/2013

NEEDLE SERIES

The Needle series consists of very shallow and shallow, excessively drained soils that formed in eolian and alluvial deposits on hills, sand sheets on structural benches and plateaus. Slopes are 1 to 35 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 9 inches and the mean annual air temperature is about 53 degrees F.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Mixed, mesic Lithic Torripsamments

TYPICAL PEDON: Needle fine sand - rangeland. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise noted.)

C1--0 to 2 inches; reddish yellow (5YR 6/6) fine sand, red (2.5YR 5/6) moist; single grain; loose; common very fine roots; many fine interstitial pores; l percent fine gravel; slightly alkaline (pH 7.8); abrupt smooth boundary. (2 to 4 inches thick)

C2--2 to 10 inches; reddish yellow (5YR 6/6) fine sand, red (2.5YR 5/6) moist; single grain; loose; many very fine roots; many interstitial pores; 1 percent fine gravel; slightly alkaline (pH 7.8); clear wavy boundary. (7 to 12 inches thick)

C3--10 to 11 inches; red (2.5YR 4/6) fine sand, red (2.5YR 4/6) moist; massive; slightly hard, very friable; common very fine roots; common interstitial pores; slightly alkaline (pH 7.8); abrupt smooth boundary. (1 to 6 inches thick)

2R--11 inches; sandstone, partially weathered in the upper 2 inches.

TYPE LOCATION: Coconino County, Arizona; about 2 miles west and 1 mile north of Page; 1100 feet north and 100 feet west of the southeast corner of section 14, T. 41 N, R. 8 E.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:

Soil moisture - Usually dry more than 75 percent of the time mainly from March-November but are intermittently moist in some part of the soil moisture control section during July-September and December-February. Driest during May and June. Typic aridic soil moisture regime.

Soil temperature: 54 to 61 degrees F.

Depth to bedrock: 3 to 20 inches

Rock fragments: 0 to 10 percent gravel and/or 0 to 10 percent parachanners or paragravel and 0 to 20 percent paraflagstones

Reaction: slightly alkaline or moderately alkaline

Organic matter content: less than 1 percent

C horizon
Hue: 2.5YR, 5YR, 7.5YR
Value: 4 to 7 dry, 3 to 6 moist
Chroma: 4 to 8, dry or moist
Texture: fine sand, loamy fine sand, loamy coarse sand, loamy sand, sand, coarse sand

COMPETING SERIES: These are the Arches (UT), Moclom (UT), and Schooner (WY) series. Arches soils have an ustic aridic soil moisture regime. Moclom soils have 10YR or yellower hues and has a mean annual soil temperature that ranges from 47 to 54 degrees F. Schooner soils are moist in the soil moisture control section during May and June.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Needle soils are on hills, sand sheets on structural benches, and rolling plateaus. Elevations range from 3,670 to 5,900 feet. Slopes range from 1 to 35 percent. The soils formed in sandy eolian and alluvial deposits. The mean annual air temperature is 52 to 59 degrees F. Mean annual precipitation is 5 to 11 inches that falls as summer thunderstorms and gentle winter rain or snow. The frost-free period is 150 to 195 days.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Pagina, Sheppard and Wahweep soils. Pagina soils have a paralithic contact at depths of 20 to 40 inches. Sheppard soils are very deep. Wahweep soils have a paralithic contact at depths of 10 to 20 inches.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Excessively drained, slow to medium runoff, rapid permeability.

USE AND VEGETATION: Used mainly for livestock grazing, wildlife habitat and recreation. Vegetation is mainly sand dropseed, galleta, fourwing saltbush, and blackbrush.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Northern Arizona and southern Utah. Needle soils are moderately extensive. MLRA is 35.

MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Phoenix, Arizona

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Canyonlands Area, Grand and San Juan Counties, Utah, 1985.

REMARKS: Type location moved from Utah to Arizona. Named after the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park.

Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:

Psamments feature: the absence of diagnostic subsurface horizons, and is sandy throughout

Lithic contact: the boundary with hard sandstone at 11 inches (2R horizon)

Classified according to Soil Taxonomy, Second Edition, 1999; Keys to Soil Taxonomy, Eleventh Edition, 2010

Updates and revisions for the correlation of Navajo Mountain Area (AZ711), June 25, 2008, CEM
Updated and revised for the correlation of Canyonlands National Park (UT688), October 2009, WWJ
Update and revisions for the correlation of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, January 2010, CEM
Update and revisions for the correlation of Chinle Area (AZ713), August 2011, LJG2
Update and revisions for the correlation of Capitol Reef National Park, January 2013, WWJ
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National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.