LOCATION PALMERDALE ALEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, active, acid, thermic Typic Udorthents
TYPICAL PEDON: Palmerdale extremely channery silt loam--idle.
(Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated.)
Ap--0 to 5 inches; dark grayish brown (2.5Y 4/2) extremely channery silt loam; weak medium granular structure; friable; 80 percent randomly oriented coarse fragments, mostly fissle shale with some broken sandstone and coal; very strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (0 to 7 inches thick)
C--5 to 80 inches; dark grayish brown (2.5Y 4/2) extremely channery silt loam; massive; friable; 85 percent randomly oriented coarse fragments, mostly fissle shale with some broken sandstone and coal; few irregularly shaped voids associated with coarse fragments; very strongly acid. (70 inches to many feet thick)
TYPE LOCATION: Blount County, Alabama. NE1/4NE1/4sec. 3, T. 14 S., R. 2 W.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the channery mine spoil material is greater than 5 feet. Reaction ranges from extremely acid to strongly acid. The coarse fragment content ranges from 40 to 90 percent. Sandstone, shale, and siltstone fragments range in size from 1/2 inch to 60 inches.
The A horizon dominantly has hue of 10YR through 5Y, value of 3 through 5, and chroma of 1 through 6. The fine earth fraction is loam, sandy loam, silt loam, or silty clay loam.
The C horizon has hue of 7.5YR to 5Y, values of 4 or 5, and chroma of 2 to 6. Mottles in these colors are common. Texture of the fine earth fraction in the C horizon is loam, silt loam, or silty clay loam.
COMPETING SERIES: The Brilliant series is the only competing series. It is nonacid.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Palmerdale soils are on nearly level to very steep slopes. They make up the majority of mine spoil areas where coal mining operations have taken place. Slope gradients range from 2 to 60 percent, depending on whether the spoils have been smoothed or how they were stocked. Where smoothed, slopes are gently and fairly uniform over large tracts. Near the type location the mean annual temperature is 62 degrees F., and the average annual precipitation is 54 inches.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are mostly in the Montevallo and Townley series. These soils have consolidated rock at shallow depths and have B horizons.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Somewhat excessively drained; medium runoff; moderately rapid permeability.
USE AND VEGETATION: Many areas are idle. Pine has been planted on some areas. Most smoothed areas have been planted to grasses for pasture and hay.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Northern Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. The series is of moderate extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Blount County, Alabama; 1974.
REMARKS: In Alabama, Palmerdale soils have been classified as a land type in previous soil surveys. Most very new stripmine spoil material has voids between shale fragments, more nearly fitting the concept of the fragmental textural family. These materials soon compact.
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
Ochric epipedon: the zone from the surface to a depth of 5 inches