LOCATION PATTENBURG         NJ
Established Series
CFE-JEW; Rev. RJE-DHK
12/2005

PATTENBURG SERIES


The Pattenburg series consists of deep and very deep, well drained soils on uplands. They formed in residuum weathered from reddish quartzose conglomerate or fanglomerate. Slopes are 2 to 45 percent. Mean annual air temperature is 50 to 55 degrees F. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 40 to 48 inches.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, active, mesic Typic Hapludults

TYPICAL PEDON: Pattenburg gravelly loam - cropland. (Colors are for moist soils.)

Ap--0 to 7 inches, reddish brown (2.5YR 4/4) gravelly loam; moderate fine granular structure; friable; many fine and coarse roots; many medium pores; 15 percent quartzite gravel and cobbles; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (7 to 10 inches thick)

BA--7 to 14 inches, dark red (2.5YR 3/6) gravelly loam; moderate fine subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine roots; many medium pores; 20 percent rounded quartzite gravel and cobbles; strongly acid; gradual smooth boundary. (0 to 7 inches thick)

Bt--14 to 30 inches, weak red (10R 4/4) very gravelly loam; strong fine subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine roots; common medium pores; continuous thin clay films on faces of peds; 40 percent rounded quartzite gravel and cobbles; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (15 to 23 inches thick)

C--30 to 60 inches, red (2.5YR 4/6) very gravelly sandy loam; massive; friable; few roots; many coarse and medium pores; 45 percent rounded quartzite gravel and cobbles, amount increases as depth increases; strongly acid. (15 to 40 inches thick)

R--60 inches, dark reddish brown (5YR 3/4) sandy shale conglomerate containing much quartzite gravel and cobbles.

TYPE LOCATION: Hunterdon County, New Jersey; Clinton Township; 50 feet south of Allerton Road and 0.5 mile west of the junction of Allerton Road and State Highway 31. USGS Pittstown topographic quadrangle; approximate coordinates lat. 40 degrees 36 minutes 36 seconds N and long. 74 degrees 53 minutes 16 seconds W, NAD83.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness ranges from 24 to 36 inches. Depth to bedrock averages more than 6 feet and ranges from 3 1/2 to 8 or more feet. Rock fragment content ranges from 10 to 45 percent in solum and from 35 to 75 percent in the substratum, but averages more than 35 percent in the control section. Rock fragments consist of dominantly quartzite, some high in hematite, and lesser amounts of red sandstone and sandy red shale. Rock fragment size is dominantly gravel but includes cobbles. The soil is strongly or very strongly acid throughout, unless limed.

The Ap horizon ranges from dark brown (7.5YR 4/2) through reddish brown (2.5YR 4/4). Fine-earth texture is loam or sandy loam. It has moderate to weak fine granular structure. Many undisturbed pedons have very thin, black A horizons overlying 6- to 9-inch yellowish red (5YR 5/6) eluvial horizons.

The B horizon ranges from yellowish red (5YR 4/6) through dark reddish brown (2.5YR 3/4) and weak red (10R 4/4). Fine-earth texture is usually loam or silt loam, but includes clay loam, sandy loam and sandy clay loam. It contains 15 to 30 percent clay. The B horizon ranges from 25 to 45 percent rock fragments. It has moderate or weak fine or medium subangular blocky structure.

The C horizon ranges from dusky red (10R 3/2) through yellowish red (5YR 4/6). Fine-earth texture is loam or sandy loam.

COMPETING SERIES: These are the Hartleton, Irondale, Macove and Trevlac soils in the same family. Hartleton soils have fragments that are dominantly shale, siltstone and sandstone channers and Bt horizons of 7.5YR or yellower hue. Irondale soils are 20 to 40 inches deep to a lithic contact. Macove soils have a hue of 7.5YR or yellower in the C horizon and rock fragments that are dominantly shale, siltstone and sandstone. Trevlac soils are 20 to 40 inches deep to a paralithic contact.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Pattenburg soils are on rolling to hilly uplands in the Triassic section of the Northern Piedmont at the base of the scarp between the Piedmont and the highlands. Slopes range from 2 to 45 percent. The regolith is weathered from reddish quartzose conglomerate or fanglomerate. Mean annual air temperature is 50 to 55 degrees F. Mean annual precipitation is 40 to 48 inches. Frost free days range from 160 to 190.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: The Annandale, Duffield, Edneyville, Penn, Raritan, Rowland, and Washington soils are geographically associated. All of these soils have less than 35 percent rock fragments in the control section. Additionally, Annandale soils have a fragipan and the Duffield and Washington soils have base saturation higher than 35 percent and overlie limestone or limey conglomerate. Edneyville soils have hue of 10YR or 7.5YR and have rock fragments consisting of dominantly granitic gneiss. Penn soils have bedrock at depths between 20 and 40 inches. Raritan soils are on terraces and have a fragipan. Rowland soils are on flood plains and lack an argillic horizon.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Pattenburg soils are well drained. Index surface runoff class is very low to medium, depending on slope. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is high. Permeability (obsolete) is moderately rapid in the B horizon and rapid in the C horizon.

USE AND VEGETATION: Most of these soil areas are wooded. Locally, gentle slopes are cleared and used for growing corn, hay or pasture. Natural vegetation is forest of red oak, black oak, chestnut oak and white oak, some beech, yellow poplar, black birch and ash.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Central New Jersey and possibly Maryland and eastern Pennsylvania. Pattenburg soils are moderately extensive with about 15,000 acres identified.

MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Hunterdon County, New Jersey, 1970. The name is taken from a small village in northwest Hunterdon County, New Jersey.

REMARKS: The Pattenburg soils were classified in the Gray-Brown Podzolic great soil group in the 1938 system.
The 12/2005 revision places the Pattenburg series in an active CEC activity class based on NASIS data and geographically associated soils. Competing series were also updated revised and other minor edits were completed.

Diagnostic horizons and other features recognized in this pedon are:
1. Ochric epipedon - the zone from the surface of the soil to a depth of 14 inches (Ap and BA horizons).
2. Argillic horizon - the zone from 14 to 30 inches (Bt horizon).
3. Lithic contact - at 60 inches (top of the R horizon).
4. Loamy-skeletal family 35 percent or more rock fragments and less than 35 percent clay in the particle-size control section (Bt horizon)

ADDITIONAL DATA: No laboratory data are available.

MLRA: 148

REVISED: 04/81-CFE-JEW; 12/2005-RJE, DHK


National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.