LOCATION OLDS                    AK

Established Series
Rev. SR
05/2022

OLDS SERIES

The Olds series consists of deep, poorly drained soils formed in volcanic ash overlying clayey alluvium underlain by sand and gravel. Olds soils are in shallow depressions on floodplains. Slopes range from 0 to 3 percent. Mean annual temperature is about 40 degrees F., and the average annual precipitation is about 60 inches.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Medial over sandy or sandy-skeletal, mixed, acid Aquandic Cryaquepts

TYPICAL PEDON: Olds silt loam -- under native grasses and sedges (All colors are for moist soil)

Oi--2 inches to 0; very dark brown (10YR 2/2) mat of roots and straw; very strongly to strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (1 to 4 inches thick)

C1--0 to 4 inches; light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4) silt loam volcanic ash; massive; firm in place, friable disturbed; streaks oflight gray; few roots; very strongly acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (3 to 8 inches thick)

C2--4 to 9 inches; light gray (10YR 7/2) loamy fine sand volcanic ash; single grained; loose; mottled with yellowish red; few roots; strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (3 to 8 inches thick)

Oib--9 to 14 inches; dark brown (10YR 3/3) fibrous peat; slightly darker in the upper half inch; contains a layer, less than one inch thick, of coarse sand at bottom of horizon; very strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (4 to 5 inches thick)

C1--14 to 32 inches; dark gray (10Y 4/1) silty clay loam, with thin lenses of dark greenish gray (5GY 4/1) coarse sand; massive; many dead roots; very strongly acid. (15 to 30 inches thick)

2C2--32 to 60 inches; coarse sand and gravel

TYPE LOCATION: Northeastern Kodiak Island Area, Alaska. Pasagshak Bay Road at head of Kalsin Bay.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The thickness of recent volcanic ash ranges from 6 to 24 inches. In places, a thin layer of alluvial silt may overlie the ash. The texture of the uppermost layer may be loamy fine sand. The buried layer of fine textured alluvium ranges in thickness from 15 to more than 30 inches. Thin seams of peat and or sand may occur in this layer.

COMPETING SERIES: These are the Kalsin and Salonie series in the same family. Kalsin and Salonie soils do not have more than 18 percent clay within any part of the control section.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Olds soils are in shallow depressions on floodplains. The climate is cool maritime. Average annual precipitation ranges from 50 to 70 inches, and the average annual temperature is about 40 degrees F. Temperatures below freezing are recorded on fewer than 40 days annually, and temperatures above 70 degrees F. are rare.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These include the Kizhuyak, Pasagshak, and Saltery series. Kizhuyak soils consist of thick accumulations of volcanic ash. Pasagshak soils consist of recent volcanic ash and very shallow silty alluvial material over coarse sand and gravel. Saltery soils consist of sedge peat with lenses of volcanic ash.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Poorly drained. Very slow permeability. Ponded to slow runoff.

USE AND VEGETATION: Used as grazing land. The natural vegetation consists dominantly of water-tolerant grasses and sedges.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Northern Kodiak Island, Alaska, and adjacent islands. The series is of minor extent.

SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (SSRO) RESPONSIBLE: WASILLA, ALASKA

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Northeastern Kodiak Island Area, Alaska, 1959.

REMARKS: The concept of the Olds series is poorly defined. More data is needed to define the central concept or the series should be inactivated (jpm, 4/87). Source of the volcanic ash is the 1912 eruption of Mt. Novarupta and Mt. Katmai on the Alaska Peninsula.

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National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.