LOCATION PINON              NM+UT
Established Series
RD: BDS-CDL-RJA-ACT
11/2000

PINON SERIES


The Pinon series consists of soils that are shallow to hard limestone bedrock. They are well drained, moderately slowly permeable that formed in alluvium and residuum. These soils are on knolls, ridges, mesas and hillslopes. Slope ranges from 1 to 30 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 13 inches; mean annual temperature is about 53 degrees F.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy, mixed, superactive, mesic Lithic Ustic Haplocalcids

TYPICAL PEDON: Pinon channery loam - rangeland. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise noted.)

A--0 to 7 inches; brown (7.5YR 5/3) channery loam, dark brown (7.5YR 4/3) moist; moderate very fine granular structure; soft, very friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; many fine and fine roots; 4 percent limestone fragments; strongly effervescent; disseminated calcium carbonate; moderately alkaline; clear smooth boundary. (3 to 10 inches thick)

Bk1--7 to 10 inches; light brown (7.5YR 6/3) channery loam, brown (7.5YR 5/3) moist; massive; slightly hard, very friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; strongly effervescent with common large concretions, few thin seams and streaks of calcium carbonate; moderately alkaline; clear smooth boundary. (2 to 4 inches thick)

Bk2--10 to 16 inches; pinkish white (7.5YR 8/2) channery loam, pinkish gray (7.5YR 6/2) moist; massive; slightly hard, very friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; few fine and medium roots; violently effervescent with many soft segregations of calcium carbonate; moderately alkaline; abrupt smooth boundary. (5 to 10 inches thick)

R--16 inches; fractured limestone with many calcium carbonate coatings on rock fragments.

TYPE LOCATION: Torrance County, New Mexico; 2,340 feet east of the NW corner sec. 15, T. 2 N., R. 7 E.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:

Depth to bedrock: 10 to 20 inches
Rock fragments: 5 to 35 percent
Soil temperature: 52 to 57 degrees F.
Reaction: mildly to moderately alkaline

A horizon:
Hue: 7.5YR or 10YR
Value: 4 to 6 dry, 2 to 5 moist
Chroma: 2 to 4

Bk horizon:
Hue: 5YR, 7.5YR, or 10YR
Value: 5 to 8 dry, 4 to 7 moist
Chroma: 2 to 4
Texture: loam, sandy clay loam, or clay loam (averages 18 to 30 percent clay).
Calcium carbonate equivalent: 15 to 40 percent

COMPETING SERIES: These are the bisoodi (T), Shalaco (T), and Wayneco (T) series. Bisoodi, Shalaco and Wayneco soils have less than 18 percent clay. Ina addition, bisoodi soils have a paralithic contact above the lithic contact.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Pinon soils are on knolls, ridges, mesas and hillslopes. Slope gradients range from 1 to 30 percent. These soils formed in alluvium and residuum derived from limestone. Mean annual temperature ranges from 49 to 56 degrees F., and a mean summer temperature of 64 degrees F. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 10 to 15 inches. The frost-free period ranges from 130 to 170 days. In Colorado these soils have air temperatures ranging from 45 to 48 degrees F. and have a frost-free period of 90 to 130 days with elevations up to 7,400 feet. Elevation ranges from 5,500 to 6,700 feet.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Dean and Deama soils and the competing Harvey soils. Dean soils have 40 percent or more carbonate in the control section and they lack a lithic contact within a depth of 20 inches. Deama soils have more than 35 percent rock fragments in the particle-size control section.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. Permeability is moderately slow above a very slowly permeable bedrock. Runoff is very high.

USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are used primarily for livestock grazing. Native vegetation is pinyon, juniper, grama grass and shrubs.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Central New Mexico and southern Colorado. The series is of moderate extent.

MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Phoenix, Arizona

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Valencia County (East Valencia Area), New Mexico, 1970.

REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:

Ochric epipedon: 0 to 7 inches. (A horizon)

Calcic horizons:7 and 16 inches. (Bk horizon)

Lithic contact: the occurrence of limestone at 16 inches.


National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.