LOCATION QUETICO                 MN+NY

Established Series
Rev. DHP-CWT-AGG
11/2010

QUETICO SERIES

The Quetico series consists of very shallow, well drained soils that formed in loamy noncalcareous glacial drift on uplands with relief controlled by the underlying bedrock. These soils have bedrock beginning at depths ranging from 4 to 10 inches. The saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderate in the loamy mantle. Slopes range from 2 to 90 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 28 inches and mean annual air temperature is about 37 degrees F.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy, isotic, acid, frigid Lithic Udorthents

TYPICAL PEDON: Quetico loam with a 13 percent southwest-facing slope in the glaciated uplands under a spruce, fir, jack pine forest at an elevation of 1,420 feet. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated.)

0i--0 to 1/2 inches; undecomposed plant remains. (1/2 to 1 inch thick)

0a--1/2 to 1 inches; black (5YR 2/1) mostly decomposed plant remains; very strongly acid. (1/4 to 3/4 inch thick)

Bs--1 to 3 inches; dark brown (7.5YR 3/4) loam; weak fine subangular blocky structure; friable; about 5 percent gravel; very strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (1 to 7 inches thick)

Bw--3 to 7 inches; dark yellowish brown (10YR 3/6) loam; weak fine subangular blocky structure; friable; about 5 percent gravel; very strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (0 to 8 inches thick)

2R--7 inches; granite bedrock.

TYPE LOCATION: Lake County, Minnesota; about 35 miles northeast of Ely in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area; NE1/4SE1/4NW1/4, sec. 24, T. 65 N., R. 7 W. (Section corners are not marked. Therefore, an accurate distance from a section corner cannot be given.)

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of solum and depth to bedrock range from 4 to 10 inches. Texture of the material above the rock contact is loam, silt loam, sandy loam, fine sandy loam or gravelly and cobbly analogues. Content of gravel by volume ranges from 3 to 35 percent. Stones and boulders within or on the soil range from 0 to 3 percent. The gravel is dominantly granite or gabbro, but sandstone is included in a few places. Reaction is very strongly acid or strongly acid.

Some pedons have an A horizon from 1 to 3 inches thick. It has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 2 to 4 and chroma of 2.

The Bs horizon has hue of 5YR or 7.5YR and value and chroma of 3 or 4. The Bs horizon contains at least 2 percent organic matter and typically is about 4 percent.

The Bw horizon has hue of 10YR to 5YR, value of 3 to 5 and chroma of 3 to 6.

COMPETING SERIES: There are no competing series.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: These soils typically are on ridges of bedrock controlled ground moraines with convex slopes, but some are on plane to concave slopes. Slopes are both simple and complex. Slope gradients typically are from 2 to 18 percent but range to as much as 90 percent. These soils formed in 4 to 10 inch mantle of loamy glacial drift of Late Wisconsinan Age typically over igneous bedrock and in a few areas a sedimentary sandstone. Mean annual temperature ranges from 35 to 40 degrees F, and mean annual precipitation ranges from 27 to 30 inches.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Barto, Conic, Insula, Mesaba and Wahlsten soils. These soils are mainly on midslope positions and have bedrock beginning at greater depths. Outcrops of bedrock are commonly adjacent to Quetico soils.

DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Well drained. Surface runoff is medium to very high. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderate.

USE AND VEGETATION: These soils mostly are in mixed deciduous and coniferous forest. Dominant trees are jack pine, red pine, white pine, quaking aspen, paper birch, balsam fir and mountain ash. Major resource uses are recreation, timber, watershed, and wildlife habitat.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: MLRA's 88, 90, 93 and 142. The Laurentian Shield region of northeastern Minnesota and in New York. Moderately extensive.

MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: St. Paul, Minnesota

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Kawishiwi Area, Minnesota, 1972.

REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are: Ochric epipedon - the zone from the surface to a depth of 5 inches (Bs and Bw horizons); udic moisture regime.

ADDITIONAL DATA: Refer to MAES Central File Code No. 3395 for results of some laboratory data on a representative pedon.

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National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.