LOCATION PENDANT COEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, carbonatic, frigid Aridic Lithic Haplustolls
TYPICAL PEDON: Pendant extremely gravelly loam - pinyon-juniper woodland. (Colors are for dry colors unless otherwise noted.)
A1--0 to 4 inches; brown (7.5YR 4/2) extremely gravelly loam, dark brown (7.5YR 3/2) moist; moderate fine granular structure; soft, very friable, slightly sticky and nonplastic; 45 percent gravel, 20 percent cobbles, 10 percent stones; strongly effervescent; 28 percent calcium carbonate equivalent (fine earth fraction); moderately alkaline (pH 8.0); clear smooth boundary. (3 to 8 inches thick)
A2--4 to 11 inches; brown (7.5YR 4/2) extremely gravelly loam, dark brown (7.5YR 3/2) moist; weak fine granular structure; soft, very friable, slightly sticky and nonplastic; 45 percent gravel and 20 percent cobbles; strongly effervescent; 35 percent calcium carbonate equivalent (fine earth fraction); moderately alkaline (pH 8.0); abrupt wavy boundary. (4 to 12 inches thick)
R--11 inches; indurated, fractured limestone.
TYPE LOCATION: Fremont County, Colorado; about 8 miles southwest of Cripple Creek; about 2,150 feet south and 200 feet east of the northwest corner of Sec. 21, T. 16 S., R. 70 W. USGS Cripple Creek South quad.; Lat. 38 degrees, 38 minutes, 20 seconds N., and Long. 105 degrees, 14 minutes, 21 seconds W.; NAD 83.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:
Mean annual soil temperature: 43 to 47 degrees F.
Mollic epipedon: 7 to 15 inches thick (when upper 18 cm mixed)
Depth to the lithic contact and thickness of the solum: 10 to 20 inches
Soil moisture: The soil moisture control section is usually dry in late spring and early summer, moist in some part in late July and August, and intermittently dry in fall; ustic regime bordering on aridic.
Lithology of rock fragments: limestone
Particle-size control section (weighted average):
Noncarbonate clay content: 8 to 18 percent
Rock fragment content: 35 to 80 percent
Calcium carbonate equivalent (less than 20mm fraction): 40 to 50 percent (estimated)
A horizon, upper part:
Hue: 2.5Y through 7.5YR
Value: 3 or 4 dry, 2 or 3 moist
Chroma: 1 or 2, dry or moist
Clay content: 10 to 25 percent
Rock fragment content: 35 to 85 percent, including 15 to 35 percent cobbles and stone
Calcium carbonate equivalent (fine earth fraction): 15 to 40 percent
Reaction: slightly alkaline or moderately alkaline
A horizon, lower part:
Hue: 2.5Y through 7.5YR
Value: 4 or 5 dry, 3 or 4 moist
Chroma: 2 or 3
Clay content: 10 to 25 percent
Rock fragment content: 35 to 80 percent, including 15 to 35 percent cobbles and stone
Calcium carbonate equivalent (fine earth fraction): 20 to 50 percent
Reaction: slightly alkaline to strongly alkaline
C horizon (not in all pedons):
Hue: 2.5Y through 7.5YR
Calcium carbonate: in some pedons visible secondary calcium carbonate accumulations occur as few to common soft masses just above the lithic contact
COMPETING SERIES: This is the Thesisters series. The Thesisters soils have a horizon of secondary carbonate accumulation that has greater than 60 percent carbonate in the fine earth fraction.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: The Pendant soils are on mountain slopes, ridges, cuestas and pediments. Slopes are 5 to 70 percent. Elevation commonly ranges from 6,600 to 8,600 feet, but in the Rampart Range Area of Colorado, the elevation ranges from 6,500 to 9,200 feet. These soils formed in slope alluvium and colluvium derived dominantly from limestone, typically of Ordovician age. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 14 to 20 inches. The mean annual temperature is 42 to 46 degrees F., and the mean summer temperature is 59 to 65 degrees F. The average frost-free season is 80 to 120 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Boyle and Tolman soils. Boyle and Tolman soils have an argillic horizon.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well to somewhat excessively drained; high or very high runoff; permeability is slow through moderate (moderately high Ksat).
USE AND VEGETATION: Woodland, livestock grazing, and wildlife habitat. The native vegetation is mainly twoneedle pinyon and Rocky Mountain juniper, blue grama, sideoats grama, and Scribner needlegrass.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Mountain areas of central Colorado. MLRA 48A. The series is of moderate extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Bozeman, Montana
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Fremont County (Fremont County Area), Colorado, 1988.
REMARKS: Diagnostic features and horizons recognized in this soil:
Mollic epipedon: from 0 to 11 inches (A1 and A2 horizons).
Lithic contact: at 11 inches (upper boundary of R layer).
Particle-size control section: The zone from 0 to 11 inches (all horizons)
Series control section: The zone from 0 to 11 inches.
When established the classification was Loamy-skeletal, mixed Lithic Haploborolls. The 02/2010 revision removes very shallow depths and changes the classification from Loamy-skeletal, mixed, superactive, frigid Lithic Haplustolls to Loamy-skeletal, carbonatic Aridic Lithic Haplustolls. Vegetation of ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir forest has been deleted from the series concept.