LOCATION PASSAIC NJEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Clayey over sandy or sandy-skeletal, mixed, active, mesic Aeric Endoaqualfs
TYPICAL PEDON: Passaic silt loam with 1 percent slope in a wooded area. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated).
A--0 to 4 inches; black (10YR 2/1) silt loam; moderate coarse granular structure; very friable; many fine and medium roots; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (2 to 6 inches thick)
ABg--4 to 10 inches; dark gray (10YR 4/1) silt loam; strong fine and medium granular structure; very friable; common medium roots; strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (0 to 8 inches thick)
Btg1--10 to 16 inches; light gray (10YR 6/1) silty clay loam; moderate medium and coarse subangular blocky structure; very friable; few fine and medium roots; many distinct clay films lining pores; many medium prominent brownish yellow (10YR 6/6) and strong brown (7.5YR 4/6) redoximorphic concentrations (45%); slightly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (4 to 30 inches thick)
Btg2--16 to 24 inches; light gray (10YR 6/1) silty clay; moderate coarse angular blocky structure; very firm; few fine roots; many distinct clay films lining pores; few fine quartz pebbles; many coarse prominent strong brown (7.5YR 4/6) and common medium prominent brownish yellow (10YR 6/6) redoximorphic concentrations (45%); neutral; clear smooth boundary. (4 to 30 inches thick)
Btg3--24 to 28 inches; gray (N 6/) clay loam; weak medium and coarse subangular blocky structure; firm; few fine roots; many distinct clay films lining pores; few fine quartz pebbles; common coarse prominent weak red (2.5YR 4/2) and yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) redoximorphic concentrations; neutral; abrupt smooth boundary. (0 to 10 inches thick)
2C--28 to 60 inches; reddish brown (5YR 4/4) gravelly loamy sand; single grain; loose; 15 percent predominantly well rounded, fine to coarse sandstone, shale, and basalt pebbles with few angular basalt and granitic gneiss pebbles; few coarse distinct brown (10YR 5/2) redoximorphic depletions; neutral.
TYPE LOCATION: Scotch Plains Borough, Union County, New Jersey; about 500 feet southeast of the intersection of Terril Road and Raritan Road; 200 feet west of the southwest corner of the parking lot of the Ashbrook Convalescent Center; 50 feet west of the power line right-of-way. USGS Branchville quadrangle; latitude 40 degrees, 36 minutes, 58 seconds N., longitude 74 degrees, 21 minutes, 53 seconds W., NAD 27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Depth to bedrock is more than 60 inches. Solum thickness corresponds with the depth to the contrasting 2C horizon and commonly is 30 inches but ranges from 24 to 35 inches. Rock fragments are generally not present but range to 10 percent in subhorizons within the solum. Gravelly or very gravelly layers or lenses are common in the substrata. The particle size control section is between the top of the Btg horizon to a depth of 1 meter or about 39 inches. Clay content in the subhorizons within the solum ranges from 25 to 60 percent but the weighted average percent clay of the upper part of the control section ranges from 35 to 50 percent. The lower part of the control section has contrasting sandy or sandy-skeletal material with less than 15 percent clay, less than 30 percent silt, and more than 70 percent fine sand or coarser. Unless limed, the surface ranges from very strongly acid to moderately acid and the subsoil ranges from strongly acid to neutral. The C horizons are neutral or mildly alkaline.
The A horizon has hue of 7.5YR to 10YR, value of 2 to 4, and chroma 1 or 2. Ap horizons, where present, have hue of 7.5YR to 10YR, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 1 or 2. Texture is silt loam or loam.
The ABg horizon, where present, has hue of 5YR to 10YR, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 0 to 2. Texture is loam or silt loam.
The Btg horizon has hue of 5YR to 10YR, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 1 or 2 or is neutral. Texture is silt loam, clay loam, silty clay loam, clay, or silty clay.
The 2C horizon has hue of 5YR to 10YR, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 3 to 6. Texture is dominantly sand, fine sand, gravelly loamy sand, or very gravelly sand. In most pedons the sand fraction is dominated by medium or fine sands. Texture ranges from sandy loam to very gravelly sand in lenses or strata, and includes clay or silt textures in varves.
COMPETING SERIES: There are no series currently in the same family.
The Swormville series is in a similar family. They have a fine-silty over sandy or sandy skeletal particle size control section.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Passaic soils are nearly level and are generally within large topographic basins. Slope is 0 to 3 percent. These soils formed in silty and clayey sediments with sandy or sandy-skeletal, texturally contrasting sediments within 40 inches of the surface. The substrata are typically sandy lacustrine or outwash deposits but include stony, cobbly, or gravelly glacial tills. The climate is humid temperate. Average annual precipitation is 40 to 48 inches and the growing season is about 140 to 170 days. Mean annual temperature is about 45 to 50 degrees F.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are Haledon, Parsippany, and Whippany soils on nearby landscapes. The somewhat poorly drained Haledon soils are on low plains and in nearly level drainageways on moraines. Parsippany and the somewhat poorly drained Whippany soils do not have contrasting sandy textures within 40 inches of the surface.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Poorly drained. Surface runoff is slow to ponded and permeability is moderate in the surface horizons, slow in the subsoil, and moderate to rapid in the substrata. The water table is at or near the surface throughout the winter and early spring and following periods of heavy rainfall.
USE AND VEGETATION: This soils supports mixed hardwood forests consisting of pin oak, swamp white oak, elm, hickory, birch, ash, and swamp maple. In the past, extensive areas have been drained and used for the production of corn, hay, and truck crops. In general, drainage improvement has been inadequate for sustained production of cultivated crops.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: MLRAs 144A, 148, and 149B in central and northern New Jersey and possibly east central Pennsylvania and southern New York. This soil is mainly found in glaciated and periglacial areas. This series is of small extent with a total of about 6,000 acres.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Union County, New Jersey, 1989.
REMARKS: The Passaic series was proposed for those soils which have been previously correlated as a Parsippany Variant in both Union and Middlesex Counties in New Jersey. The Passaic series was used in the past to describe soils similar to what is presently Passaic series. The name is from the town of Passaic in Passaic County, New Jersey.
Cation-exchange activity class is presumed from a review of data of similar soils. Changes in competing series
may result from updates in classification.
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
1. Ochric epipedon - the zone between 0 and 10 inches (A, ABg)
2. Argillic horizon - the zone between 10 and 28 inches (Btg1, Btg2, Btg3) with a average clay content of more than 35 percent (clayey) over texturally contrasting sandy material (2C-zone of 28 to 60 inches) (sandy or sandy skeletal) within the particle size control section of 10 to 39 inches.
3. Redoximorphic features are present in all layers between 25 and 40 cm. and more than 50 percent redox depletions with a chroma of 1 or less within the upper 12.5 cm. of the argillic horizon (Btg1).
4. Aeric subgroup - the presence of one horizon with both value and chroma of 3 or more in 50 percent or more of the matrix having a hue of 10YR or yellower within 75 cm of the surface (2C horizon beginning at 28 inches is 10YR 4/4).