LOCATION PULSIPHER               NV

Established Series
Rev. ELS
12/2015

PULSIPHER SERIES

The Pulsipher series consists of shallow, well drained soils that formed in material weathered from metamorphic rocks. Pulsipher soils are on foothills of mountains and have 15 to 30 percent slopes. The mean annual precipitation is about 10 inches and the mean annual air temperature is about 57 F.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, superactive, thermic Lithic Haplocambids

TYPICAL PEDON: Pulsipher gravelly loam, rangeland. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise noted.)

A1--O to 2 inches; grayish brown (2.5Y 5/2) gravelly loam, very dark grayish brown (2.5Y 3/2) moist; weak thin and medium platy structure; soft, very friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; many very fine roots; few very fine and fine vesicular, and many very fine interstitial pores; slightly effervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.0); abrupt smooth boundary. (1 to 4 inches thick)

Bw--2 to 15 inches; grayish brown (2.5Y 5/2) very gravelly sandy loam, very dark grayish brown (2.5Y 3/2) moist; massive; soft, very friable, nonsticky and nonplastic; common very fine and fine, and few medium tubular pores; strongly effervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.2); abrupt wavy boundary. (7 to 15 inches thick)

Cr--15 to 18 inches; very dark gray (10YR 3/1) weathered mica schist; common coarse and very coarse white (10YR 8/2) lime coatings along fracture planes; original rock structure; can be dug easily with a tile spade. (2 to 6 inches thick)

R--18 inches; extremely hard mica schist.

TYPE LOCATION: Clark County, Nevada; approximately 600 feet north of the apparent center of sec. 11, T.155., R.70E.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:

Soil moisture- Usually moist during the winter and dry from about April to November, but it is moist in some part for 1 or 2 short periods in the summer and borders the ustic moisture regime.

Depth to hard bedrock - 12 to 20 inches.

Temperature is 59 to 62 F.

The organic matter content ranges from about 0.6 to 1 percent.


Bw horizon: Hue is 2.5Y or 1OYR,

Value is 5 or 6 dry, 3 or 4 moist.

Chroma: 2 or 3.

Textures: Averages very gravelly coarse sandy loam, very gravelly sandy loam or very gravelly loam.

Clay content: less than 18 percent clay.

Rock fragment 50 to 75 percent pebbles and cobbles.

The soil is commonly calcareous but is noncalcareous in some of the shallower pedons.

Lime: Few or common soft lime masses or thin lime coatings on underside of rock fragments are in the lower 5 inches immediately above hard bedrock or are present as coatings on the bedrock surface and in crevices.

Reaction: Mildly or moderately alkaline.

COMPETING SERIES: These are the Garr and Virgin Peak series. Garr soils are strongly alkaline, have less than 0.6 percent organic matter and are never moist in any part of the moisture control section during the summer. Virgin Peak soils have a mollic epipedon, and are usually moist in some or all parts of their moisture control section during a major part of the summer.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: The Pulsipher soils are on foothills and lower slopes of mountains at elevations of 3500 to 4,500 feet. Slopes are 15 to 30 percent. The soils formed in material weathered from metamorphic rocks mainly gneiss and schist. The average annual temperature is about 55 to 58F.; average precipitation is about 8 to 11 inches; and frost-free season is about 200 days.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Arizo and Cave soils and the competing Garr and Virgin Peak soils. Arizo soils are deep and have sandy-skeletal control sections. Cave soils have petrocalcic horizons.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well-drained; medium runoff; moderately rapid permeability.

USE AND VEGETATION: Used for livestock grazing. The vegetation is primarily blackbrush, yucca, dalea, Spanish bayonet, white bursage, and cliffrose.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: These soils are of small extent in southern Nevada, northwestern Arizona and possibly southwestern Utah.

MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: PHOENIX, ARIZONA

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Clark County (Virgin River Area), Nevada, 1970.

Remarks: Recent observations of temperature and moisture regimes changed the concept of these soils from loamy-skeletal. mixed, mesic Lithic Xerollic Camborthids.

Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
Cambic horizon - The zone from 2 to 15 inches. (the Bw horizon)

Paralithic - The zone from 15 to 18 inches.(the Cr horizon)

Lithic contact - The zone at 18 inches. (the R horizon)

Scanned by NQSSA last state update 12/76

Responsibility for this series was transferred from Davis to Phoenix 12/2015. The last revision to the series was 10/2006. ET

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National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.