LOCATION SULPHURA TN+KYEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, siliceous, semiactive, thermic Typic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Sulphura channery silt loam, on a 20 percent slope -- forested. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated.)
A--0 to 1 inch; dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) channery silt loam; moderate medium granular structure; very friable; common fine and medium roots; common fine and medium pores; 20 percent channers of siltstone and shale, and angular chert fragments; moderately acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (1 to 6 inches thick)
AB--1 to 5 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) channery silt loam; moderate medium granular structure; friable; common fine and medium roots; common fine and medium pores; 20 percent channers of siltstone and shale, and angular chert fragments; moderately acid; clear wavy boundary. (0 to 7 inches thick)
Bw1--5 to 12 inches; dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) channery silt loam; moderate medium and fine subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine and medium roots; common fine pores; 25 percent channers of siltstone and shale, and angular fragments of chert; moderately acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bw2--12 to 26 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) very channery silt loam; weak fine and medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine and medium roots; common fine pores; 50 percent channers of siltstone and shale; moderately acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (Thickness of the Bw horizon ranges from 12 to 30 inches.)
R--26 inches; hard, dark gray limestone bedrock.
TYPE LOCATION: Davidson County, Tennessee; 4 miles west of Bellevue; 0.4 mile south of junction of Poplar Creek Road and Griffith Road.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum and depth to hard bedrock ranges from 20 to 40 inches. Reaction ranges from strongly acid to moderately acid in the upper part and from strongly acid to slightly acid in the lower part. Content of rock fragments of siltstone, shale, or chert ranges from 10 to 35 percent in the A and E horizons and averages 35 percent or more in the B horizon. Transition horizons have colors and textures similar to adjacent horizons.
The A horizon or Ap horizon, where present, has hue of 10YR, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 2 to 4. Texture of the fine earth fraction is silt loam or loam.
The E horizon, where present, has hue of 10YR, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 3 or 4. Texture of the fine earth fraction is silt loam or loam.
The Bw horizon has hue of 10YR or 7.5YR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 4 or 6. Texture of the fine earth fraction is silt loam, loam or silty clay loam.
Some pedons have a thin Cr horizon of weathered siltstone or shale over hard bedrock.
COMPETING SERIES: The Hawthorne and Nashoba series are in the same family. Hawthorne soils are close competitors on the landscape but have a paralithic contact of rippable siltstone and limestone between 20 and 40 inches and hard bedrock is deeper than 40 inches. The Nashoba soils formed in material weathered from Pennsylvanian age sandstone and commonly have greater than 15 percent coarse than very fine sand in the control section. Closely associated families include Bremo, Goldston, Hector, Manteo, Montevallo, Pickens, and Roseland series. Bremo soils have mixed minearology. Goldston soils developed in slaty saprolite and are shallow. Hector soils have less than 35 percent coarse fragments in the control section and are in a shallow family. Manteo, Montevallo, and Pickens have mixed mineralogy and are in a shallow family. Roseland soils have an umbric epipedon.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Sulphura soils are on highly dissected hillsides and less commonly are on rolling upland ridgetops. Slopes range from 5 to 75 percent. These soils formed in residuum of interbedded siltstone, limestone, and shale. On the lower slopes, some pedons formed partly in a thin layer of gravelly colluvium. Near the type location, average annual temperature is 60 degrees F., and average annual precipitation is 48 inches.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the competing Hawthorne series and the Saffell, Lax, Dellrose, Dickson, Ennis, Sengtown, Humphreys, Mimosa, Lobelville, Mountview and Ocana series. Saffell soils are on similar landscape positions but are very deep to bedrock. Sengtown and Mountview soils are in similar landscape positions but have less than 35 percent fragments in the solum. Lax and Dickson soils are on undulating to rolling ridgetops and have a fragipan in the subsoil. Ennis, Lobelville, and Ocana soils are on nearly level flood plains and contain less than 35 percent coarse fragments. Dellrose, Humphrey, and Mimosa are on footslopes and have less than 35 percent fragments in the solum.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: somewhat excessively drained; medium to very rapid runoff; moderately rapid permeability
USE AND VEGETATION: Most of the acreage is in woodland consisting of chesnut and white oaks, hickory, hackberry, beech, Virginia pine, and eastern redcedar. The few cleared ridgetops areas are used as pasture.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Nashville Basin and Highland Rim in Tennessee, and possibly the Eastern Pennyroyal in Kentucky. The series is of moderate extent.
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Lawrence County, Tennessee; 1955.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons in this pedon are:
Ochric epipedon - 0 to 5 inches (A and AB horizons)
Cambic horizon - 5 to 26 inches (Bw horizon)