LOCATION PINON NM+UTEstablished Series
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.