LOCATION SIPSEY AL+GAEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, siliceous, semiactive, thermic Typic Hapludults
TYPICAL PEDON: Sipsey loamy sand on a wooded 8 percent slope. (Colors are for moist soil.)
A--0 to 4 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) loamy sand; weak fine granular structure; very friable; many fine and medium roots; 5 percent by volume of sandstone channers; strongly acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (3 to 8 inches thick)
E--4 to 10 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) sandy loam; weak fine granular structure; friable; common fine and few medium roots; 5 percent by volume of sandstone channers; moderately acid; clear wavy boundary. (0 to 15 inches thick)
EB--10 to 16 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) sandy loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; very friable; 10 percent by volume of sandstone channers; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (0 to l0 inches thick)
Bt--16 to 31 inches; strong brown (7.5YR 5/8) sandy clay loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; distinct discontinuous clay films on faces of some peds; 10 percent by volume of sandstone channers; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (6 to 18 inches thick)
Cr--31 to 60 inches; soft, weathered sandstone bedrock; massive.
TYPE LOCATION: Walker County, Alabama; 900 feet west, 1,000 feet north of the SE corner of Sec. 35, T. 12 S., R. 7 W.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness and depth to soft bedrock ranges from 20 to 40 inches. Fragments of sandstone and siltstone range from 0 to 15 percent throughout. The soil is very strongly acid to moderately acid throughout, except where lime has been added.
The A horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 3 to 6. It is loamy sand, fine sandy loam, or sandy loam.
The E and EB horizon, where present, has hue of 7.5YR or l0YR, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 4 to 6. It is loamy sand, fine sandy loam, or sandy loam.
The Bt horizon has hue of 5YR to 10YR, value or 4 or 5, and chroma of 4 to 8. Mottles of brown or yellow are in the lower part of the Bt horizon in some pedons. Texture of the Bt horizon is sandy loam, loam, sandy clay loam, or clay loam. In some pedons, the lower part of the Bt horizon may have 15 to 35 percent coarse fragments.
The Cr horizon consists of level-bedded or cross-bedded weathered sandstone or interbedded sandstone, siltstone, or shale. It is rippable with heavy equipment and can be cut with hand tools in most places.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Apison, Cahaba, Durham, Emporia, Euharlee, Granville, Hartsells, Kempsville, Linker, Nauvoo, Oktaha, Olla, Pirum, Smithdale, Spadra, Stringtown, Suffolk, and Vaucluse series. Apison soils have a higher content of silt in the argillic horizon than Sunlight soils. The Cahaba, Durham, Emporia, Euharlee, Granville, Kempsville, Nauvoo, Olla, Smithdale, Spadra, Stringtown, Suffolk and Vaucluse soils do not have a paralithic contact within a depth of 20 to 40 inches of the surface. Pirum soils have an irregular lower boundary over tilted, fractured sandstone. Hartsells, Linker and Oktaha soils have hard sandstone bedrock within 40 inches of the soil surface.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Sipsey soils are on narrow ridgetops and side slopes. Slopes range from 4 to 30 percent. The soil formed in loamy residuum weathered from sandstone interbedded with siltstone or shale. Average annual temperature ranges from 58 to 63 degrees F. and average annual precipitation ranges from 50 to 60 inches.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These include the competing Apison, Hartsells, Nauvoo, and Nectar series on similar landforms, and Albertville, Bankhead, Sunlight, Tidings, and Townley series. Albertville and Townley soils are on similar landforms and have more than 35 percent clay in the particle-size control section. Bankhead soils are on adjacent side slopes and have less than 18 percent clay in the particle-size control section . Sunlight soils are on adjacent side slopes and are shallow to bedrock. The Tidings soils are on adjacent side slopes and have 40 to 60 percent silt in the particle-size control section.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Sipsey soils are well drained and have moderate permeability. Runoff is slow to rapid, depending on slope and vegetative cover.
USE AND VEGETATION: Principal use is mixed hardwood and pine woodland. Some small areas are cleared and cropped to corn, soybeans, and cotton. Other areas are in hay or pasture.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Cumberland Plateau and Mountains and the Southern Appalachian Ridge and Valley MLRA's of Alabama, and possibly in Arkansas, Georgia, and Tennessee. The series is of large extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Walker County, Alabama; 1986.
REMARKS: Soils of the Sipsey series were formerly included in mapping with the Hartsells series. Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
Ochric epipedon: the zone from the surface to a depth of 16 inches (the A, E, and EB horizons)
Argillic horizon: the zone from a depth of 16 inches to a depth of 31 inches (the Bt horizon)
Paralithic contact: the base of the soil at a depth of 31 inches (top of the Cr horizon)