LOCATION PEAVY MIEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, active, frigid Oxyaquic Haplorthods
TYPICAL PEDON: Peavy silt loam - on a 4 percent slope in a once cleared area now reverted to forest. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated.)
Ap--0 to 6 inches; dark reddish brown (5YR 3/2) silt loam, reddish brown (5YR 4/3) dry; weak fine granular structure; friable; about 3 percent channers and 2 percent flagstones; moderately acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (4 to 7 inches thick)
Bs--6 to 22 inches; dark reddish brown (2.5YR 3/4) very fine sandy loam; weak fine subangular blocky structure; friable; about 3 percent channers and 2 percent flagstones; slightly acid; abrupt broken boundary (5 to 18 inches thick)
E--22 to 27 inches; reddish brown (5YR 4/4) fine sandy loam; few fine distinct yellowish red (5YR 4/6) mottles; weak fine subangular blocky structure; friable; about 3 percent channers and 2 percent flagstones; slightly acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (4 to 18 inches thick)
2Btd--27 to 41 inches; dark reddish brown (2.5YR 3/4) channery loam; moderate thin platy structure; very firm; many red (2.5YR 4/6) clay films on faces of plates; about 20 percent channers and 10 percent flagstones; slightly acid; clear wavy boundary. (8 to 18 inches thick)
2Cd--41 to 60 inches; dark reddish brown (5YR 3/3) channery sandy loam; weak medium platy structure; extremely firm; about 20 percent channers and 10 percent flagstones; slightly acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Iron County, Michigan; about 2 miles southwest of the town of Crystal Falls; 780 feet south and 390 feet west of the northeast corner of sec. 36, T. 43 N., R. 33 W.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The thickness of the solum ranges from 26 to 50 inches and the depth to the dense till paralithic contact is more than 60 inches. The content of channers ranges from 2 to 10 percent in the Ap, Bs and E horizons, and from 2 to 20 percent in the 2Btd horizon and 15 to 50 percent in the dense till. Cobble content ranges from 1 to 5 percent in the solum and 5 to 10 percent in the dense till. Stone content ranges from 0 to 2 percent throughout the soil. Reaction is moderately acid or slightly acid throughout.
The Ap horizon has hue of 5YR or 7.5YR, value of 2 or 3 and chroma of 1 to 3. It is silt loam or very fine sandy loam. Some pedons have A horizons with similar color and textures to the Ap horizon. Some pedons have an E horizon immediately below the A horizon with hue of 5YR or 7.5YR; value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 2 or 3. Texture is similar to the Ap horizon.
The Bs horizon has hue of 2.5YR to 7.5YR; value of 3 or 4, and chroma of 3 to 6. The E horizon immediately below the Bs horizon has hue of 5YR or 7.5YR; value of 4 or 5 and chroma of 3 or 4. The Bs and E horizons are loam, silt loam, very fine sandy loam or fine sandy loam.
The 2Btd and 2Cd horizons have hue of 2.5YR or 5YR and value and chroma of 3 or 4. They are channery loam, channery sandy loam, very channery loam, or very channery sandy loam.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Abbaye, Alcona, Cheboygan, Goodman, Newood (T), Padus, Sarona, Trenary and Ubly series in the same family. Abbaye soils have bedrock within 40 inches of the surface. The Alcona, Goodman, Padus, Sarona, Trenary and Ubly soils do not have Btd or Cd horizons. Cheboygan soils contain loamy sand in the upper part of the series control section. Emmet soils do not have spodic horizons. Newood soils do not have textures of loam, channery loam or very channery loam in the argillic horizon, do not contain slate channers in the profile, do not have Btd horizons, and formed in sandstone.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Peavy soils are on ground moraines of Wisconsin age. Iron rich slate usually underlies this soil and occasionally outcrops. Slope gradients range from 1 to 18 percent. They formed in modified loamy eolian material and in the the underlying noncalcareous, loamy dense till. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 30 to 32 inches, and mean annual temperature ranges from 41 to 43 degrees F.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Cathro, Lupton, Padus, Sarona and Wabeno soils. The very poorly drained Cathro and Lupton soils are in adjacent depressional areas. Padus soils have sand and channery sand substratums and are on adjacent outwash plains. Sarona and Wabeno soils are adjacent to Peavy soil on similar landscape positions but do not have dense till.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Moderately well drained and well drained. Depth to the perched seasonal high water table in the moderately well drained phase ranges from 1.5 feet to 3.0 feet from November to April. Surface runoff is slow to rapid. Permeability is moderate in the upper part of the soil and slow or very slow in the lower part.
USE AND VEGETATION: Many areas of this soil were cleared for agricultural and mining purposes. A few areas remain in mixed grasses and shrubs, but most have now reverted to a hardwood forest. Sugar maple is the principal species. Ground vegetation includes sugar maple, sedges, ladyfern, sweet cicely, downy yellow violet, maiden hair fern, bloodroot, trillium, white baneberry, wild leek and rattlesnake grapefern.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southwestern upper peninsula of Michigan and possibly adjacent areas of Wisconsin. The series is of small extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: St. Paul, Minnesota
SERIES PROPOSED: Iron County, Michigan, 1990. The source of the name is a reservoir in Iron County.
REMARKS: Classification changed to agree with ST Issue #17 on 2 Sept 94 by CLG. Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this soil are: ochric epipedon - zone from 0 to 6 inches (A horizon); spodic horizon - the from 6 to 22 inches (Bs horizon); argillic horizon - the zone from 27 to 41 inches of development of an argillic horizon in the presence of dense unconsolidated material (2Btd horizon).; paralithic contact - 41 inches (Cd horizon); The loamy eolian surface of this soil has been modified by windthrow action and post glacial erosion.