LOCATION PANAMINT CAEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, superactive, mesic Typic Haploxerolls
TYPICAL PEDON: Panamint cobbly very fine sandy loam, on a north facing concave slope of 40 percent under big sagebrush and scattered pinyon pine at 6,150 feet elevation. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise noted.) The soil surface covered with about 1 percent boulders, 2 percent stones, 20 percent cobbles, and 5 percent pebbles.
A1--0 to 2 inches; dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) cobbly very fine sandy loam, very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) moist; moderate thick platy structure; soft, very friable, nonsticky and slightly plastic; common very fine roots; few fine tubular and interstitial pores; 5 percent pebbles, 20 percent cobbles, and 3 percent stones or boulders; slightly alkaline (pH 7.4); clear smooth boundary. (1 to 3 inches thick)
A2--2 to 6 inches; grayish brown (10YR 5/2) very fine sandy loam, very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) moist; weak medium subangular blocky structure; slightly hard, very friable, nonsticky and slightly plastic; common very fine and fine roots; few fine tubular and interstitial pores; 10 percent pebbles; slightly alkaline (pH 7.4); clear wavy boundary. (3 to 6 inches thick)
Bw--6 to 18 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) gravelly fine sandy loam, very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) moist; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; hard, friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; common fine and medium, few coarse roots; common medium tubular and few fine interstitial pores; 15 percent pebbles; noneffervescent; slightly alkaline (pH 7.6); abrupt irregular boundary. (10 to 15 inches thick)
C--18 to 24 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) gravelly fine sandy loam, dark brown (10YR 3/3) moist; massive; extremely hard, firm, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; few fine and medium roots; few fine tubular and interstitial pores; 20 percent pebbles; noneffervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.0); gradual wavy boundary. (5 to 16 inches thick)
Cr--24 to 60 inches; highly weathered quartz monzonite; has vertical fractures 25 cm apart and 2 mm in width; contains some hard, unweathered cobble and stone-size fragments; roots extend down between fractures; violently effervescent; soft powdery lime lining some fractures.
TYPE LOCATION: Inyo County, California; in the Nelson Range about 0.5 miles northeast of the junction of Saline Valley Road and Hunter Mountain Road; USGS Jackass Canyon 7.5 minute topographic quadrangle; approximately 36 degrees 32 minutes 00 seconds north latitude and 117 degrees 32 minutes 30 seconds west longitude, NAD27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:
Depth to a paralithic contact is 20 to 40 inches. The mean annual soil temperature is about 55 degrees F. Organic carbon of the upper 18 inches ranges from 0.6 to 2 percent and decreases regularly with increasing depth to less than 0.6 percent at a depth of 20 inches. The soil is mildly alkaline or moderately alkaline. The soils are dry in all parts from mid-July to November for about 110 consecutive days and moist in all parts from January to April for about 90 consecutive days. The soil temperature is above 41 degrees F. from mid-March to December for about 260 days.
The A horizons have dry color of 10YR 5/2, 4/2, or 5/3 and moist color of 10YR 3/2 or 3/3. It is very fine sandy loam or cobbly very fine sandy loam. Rock fragments consist of a mixture of 5 to 3 5 percent pebbles and cobbles.
The Bw horizon has dry color of 10YR 5/2, 5/3, 5/4; 7.5YR 5/2 or 5/4 and moist color of 10YR 3/2, 3/3; or 7.5YR 3/2. It is gravelly very fine sandy loam or gravelly fine sandy loam. Clay ranges from 10 to 18 percent. Rock fragments average 15 to 35 percent, mostly pebbles and some cobbles.
The C horizon has dry color of 10YR 5/3 or 6/3 and moist color of 10YR 3/3 or 3/4. It is gravelly sandy loam or gravelly fine sandy loam. Rock fragments average 15 to 35 percent, mostly pebbles and some cobbles.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Anders, Chenoweth, Cleverly, Cushenbury, Duart, Hesslan, Knutsen, Newbon, and Wato series.
Anders soils have a lithic contact with hard basalt at a depth of 20 to 40 inches. Chenoweth, Cleverly, Knutsen, Newbon, and Wato soils are deeper than 40 inches to bedrock. Cushenbury soils average 4 to 10 percent clay in the solum, are neutral or slightly acid, and have a Bt horizon with few thin clay films bridging mineral grains. Duart and Hesslan soils are influenced by volcanic ash. In addition, Duart soils have less than 5 percent rock fragments and have a loam or silt loam B horizon. Hesslan soils have a loam or gravelly loam B horizon and soil temperature of 47 to 51 degrees F.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Panamint soils are on hills and mountains. Slopes are 15 to 50 percent. The soils formed in material weathered from granitic rocks. The bedrock consists of weathered and fractured granite, granodiorite, and quartz monzonite with powdery lime in the fractures. Some pedons lack lime. Elevations are 4,000 to 6,500 feet. The climate is semiarid with hot, dry summers with infrequent summer thunder storms of short duration and cool, moist winters. The average annual precipitation is 8 to 10 inches. The mean annual temperature is 53 degrees F.; the mean January temperature is 40 degrees F.; and the mean July temperature is 80 degrees F. The frost free season is 185 to 235 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Ferroburro, Huntmount, Mexispring, and Ulida soils. Ferroburro, Mexispring, and Ulida soils are less than 20 inches deep to a paralithic contact. Huntmount and Ulida soils have an argillic horizon. Huntmount soils are more than 60 inches deep to a paralithic contact.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained; medium runoff; moderately rapid permeability.
USE AND VEGETATION: Used mainly for watershed., wildlife habitat, recreation land, and rangeland. The native vegetation is primarily California desert buckwheat, needlegrass, Anderson's thornbush, green Mormon tea, scattered Joshua tree, scattered Utah juniper, singleleaf pinyon, and scattered big sagebrush.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: These soils are mapped in the mountains of northern California Desert and are of small extent. MLRA 29.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Davis, California
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Inyo County, California, Saline Valley Area, 1980.
REMARKS: The soil is considered to have an intergrade to an aridic moisture regime. The number of days the soil is dry above 41 degrees F. is only slightly less than 1/2 of the time. Future study should evaluate whether this series has an aridic moisture regime that borders on xeric and should be reclassified to an Aridic Haploxeroll.
The superactive cation exchange activity class was added in 03/2003 to the taxonomic classification by the National Soil Survey Center on request of the Reno MLRA office, without review of the soil series property data. The remainder of this document has not been updated.