LOCATION POQUONOCK RI MAEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Mixed, mesic Typic Udipsamments
TYPICAL PEDON: Poquonock loamy fine sand - idle field, in an area of Poquonock loamy fine sand, 3 to 8 percent slopes, at an elevation of about 5 feet (2 meters). (Colors are for moist soil.)
Ap-- 0 to 8 inches (0 to 20 centimeters), dark brown (10YR 3/3) loamy fine sand; weak medium granular structure; very friable; many fine roots; 2 percent gravel; strongly acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (6 to 10 inches (15 to 25 centimeters) thick.)
Bw1-- 8 to 18 inches (20 to 46 centimeters), dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) loamy fine sand; weak medium granular structure; very friable; few fine roots; 1 percent gravel; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bw2-- 18 to 28 inches (46 to 71 centimeters), light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) loamy sand; single grain; loose; few fine roots; 5 percent gravel; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bw is 12 to 33 inches (25 to 41 centimeters).)
2Cd-- 28 to 60 inches (71 to 152 centimeters), dark gray (N 4/) gravelly loam; weak thick plates; very firm, brittle; 25 percent gravel; strongly acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Newport County, Rhode Island; northwest corner of the town of Middletown, 1.2 miles south of the Middletown-Portsmouth town line and 500 feet east of Narragansett Bay. USGS Prudence Island, RI topographic quadrangle, Latitude 41 degrees, 32 minutes, 46 seconds N., Longitude 71 degrees, 18 minutes, 31 seconds W.; NAD 1983.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum and depth to the densic contact ranges from 20 through 39 inches (50 through 100 centimeters). Depth to bedrock is commonly more than 6 feet (1.8 meters). Rock fragments range from 0 through 25 percent in the surface layer, 0 through 15 percent in the subsoil, and from 10 through 34 percent in the substratum. Stones and boulders range from 0 through 20 percent in the surface layer and from 0 through 5 percent in the subsoil and substratum. Cobbles range from 0 through 10 percent in the surface layer, 0 through 5 percent in the subsoil, and 0 through 15 percent in the substratum. Gravel ranges from 0 through 10 percent in the solum and from 5 through 30 percent in the substratum. Unless limed, the soil is moderately acid through extremely acid.
Some pedons have O horizons
The Ap horizon has hue 10YR or 7.5YR, value 3 or 4, and chroma 2 through 4. Undisturbed pedons have a thin A horizon that has hue 10YR, value 2 or 3, and chroma 1 or 2. The Ap or A horizon is fine sandy loam, sandy loam, loamy fine sand, loamy sand, sand, or coarse sand in the fine earth fraction. It has weak, fine or medium, granular structure and is friable or very friable or the horizon is massive and loose.
Some pedons have a thin E horizon below the A horizon. It has hue 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value 4 through 6, and chroma 1 through 3. Texture, structure, and consistence are like the A horizon only it includes single grain structure.
The B horizon has hue 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value 4 through 6, and chroma 4 through 8. Some pedons have a thin lower B horizon that has 5YR hue. The B horizon is loamy fine sand, loamy sand, fine sand, sand, or coarse sand in the fine earth. It has weak, fine or medium, granular structure or it is massive or single grain. Consistence is very friable or loose.
Some pedons have a weakly developed Bhs or Bs horizon with hue 5YR or 7.5 YR, value 3 through 5 and chroma 2 through 4. They do not meet the requirements of a Spodic horizon.
Some pedons have a BC horizon with similar properties to the B horizon, except it includes loamy coarse sand textures.
Some pedons have a C horizon with hue 10YR or 2.5Y, value 5 or 6, chroma 2 through 4. It has similar texture, structure, and consistence to the B horizon.
The 2Cd layer is neutral or has hue 2.5YR through 5Y, value 2 through 7, and chroma 1 through 6. It is loamy sand, sandy loam, fine sandy loam, loam, or silt loam in the fine earth. The structure is geogenically derived, appearing in the form of weak or moderate, thin to thick plates, or it is massive. Consistence is firm or very firm.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Acquango, Aldo, Bigapple, Biltmore, Boplain, Breeze (T), Caesar, Chute, Dabney, Hodge, North Shore (T), Oakville, Osolo, Pahuk, Penwood, Perks, Pinegrove, Plainfield, Ronda, Samoa, Sardak, Sarpy, Scotah, Spessard, Suncook, Tyner, Wapanucket (T), Windsor. Acquango, Aldo, Bigapple, Biltmore, Boplain, Breeze (T), Caesar, Chute, Dabney, Hodge, Oakville, Osolo, Pahuk, Penwood, Perks, Pinegrove, Plainfield, Ronda, Samoa, Sardak, Sarpy, Scotah, Spessard, Suncook, Tyner, Wapanucket (T), and Windsor soils lack a densic contact and are not underlain by till. North Shore (T) soils do not have an OSD on file to compete.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Poquonock soils are nearly level through moderately steep soils on till plains, moraines and drumlins that typically border and underlay outwash terraces. Slope ranges from 0 through 25 percent, but are mainly less than 8 percent. The soils formed in sandy eolian or glaciofluvial deposits over sandy or loamy lodgement till with a densic contact within a meter. In some areas dense flow till is present. The till is derived from a wide variety of rocks, including sandstone, shale, phyllite, schist, gneiss, granite and dark carboniferous rocks. Mean annual temperature is 45 through 52 degrees F. (7 through 11 degrees C.) and mean annual precipitation is 40 through 50 inches (1016 through 1270 millimeters. The growing season is 120 through 185 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Agawam, Bernardston, Birchwood, Broadbrook, Deerfield, Essex, Hartford, Hinckley, Ludlow, Manchester, Merrimac, Newport, Ninigret, Paxton, Penwood, Pittstown, Quonset, Rainbow, Wethersfield, Windsor, and the Woodbridge soils on nearby landscapes. Agawam, Deerfield, and Ninigret soils are on nearby terraces. Bernardston, Broadbrook, Ludlow, Newport, Paxton, Pittstown, Rainbow, Wethersfield, and Woodbridge soils are on uplands but are loamy throughout. Birchwood, Deerfield, and Eldridge soils have low chroma depletions in the solum. Birchwood soils (moderately well drained) are associated in a drainage sequence. Carver, Hartford, Merrimac, Penwood, and Windsor soils have a sandy particle-size control section and lack a dense substratum. Essex soils have a sandy substratum. Gloucester, Hinckley, Manchester, and Quonset soils are sandy-skeletal and lack a dense substratum.
DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Well drained. Surface runoff is negligible to high. Saturated hydraulic conductivity ranges from high or very high in the solum and low or moderately low in the substratum.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are cleared and used for cultivated crops, tobacco, vegetables, nursery stock, hay or pasture. Some areas are used for community development. A few areas are idle or wooded. Common trees are northern red, white, and black oak, hickory, gray birch, aspen, white ash, and eastern white pine.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Eastern Massachusetts and eastern Rhode Island. MLRA 144A. The series is of small extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Hartford County, Connecticut, 1959.
REMARKS: Poquonock soils were previously classified as Sandy over loamy, Typic Udorthents.Soil fits Psamments criteria. There also is no loamy texture within the particle size control section.
Diagnostic horizons and features included in this soil include:
1. Ochric epipedon the zone from 0 to 8 inches (0 to 20 centimeters) (Ap horizon)
2. Densic contact occurs at 28 inches (71 centimeters).
3. Psamments the zone from 10 to 28 inches (25 to 71 centimeters) has texture of loamy fine sand or coarser in all layers (Bw1 and Bw2 horizons)
4. Sandy particle size the zone from 10 to 28 inches (25 to 71 centimeters) averages loamy sand (Bw1 and Bw2 horizons)
ADDITIONAL DATA: Partial reference samples from pedons,S94MA023001 and S94MA023002 from Plymouth County, Massachusetts, samples by NSSL, Lincoln, NE, 1994.