LOCATION SUNCITY AZEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy, mixed, superactive, hyperthermic, shallow Typic Argidurids
TYPICAL PEDON: Suncity very gravelly loam - rangeland. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise noted.)
A--0 to 1 inch; light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4) and light brown (7.5YR 6/4) extremely gravelly loam, dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) and brown (7.5YR 4/4) moist; weak thin platy structure; slightly hard, friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; common fine roots; many medium vesicular pores; 80 percent gravel as surface cover; noneffervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.2); abrupt smooth boundary. (1 to 2 inches thick)
BA--1 to 3 inches; light brown (7.5YR 6/4) loam, brown (7.5YR 5/4) moist; tongues of pink (7.5YR 7/4) soil material from the horizon above; weak medium platy structure; slightly hard, very friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; common fine roots; few fine tubular pores; 10 percent gravel; strongly effervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.2); abrupt smooth boundary. (0 to 3 inches thick)
Btk1--3 to 6 inches; brown (7.5YR 5/4) loam, reddish brown (5YR 4/4) moist; weak fine subangular blocky structure; slightly hard, friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; common fine roots; many fine irregular pores; few faint clay films on faces of peds; 5 percent gravel; few fine soft calcium carbonate masses; strongly effervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.2); abrupt smooth boundary. (2 to 5 inches thick)
Btk2--6 to 10 inches; reddish brown (5YR 4/4) and yellowish red (5YR 4/6) clay loam, reddish brown (5YR 4/3) moist; moderate fine subangular blocky structure; slightly hard, friable, slightly sticky and moderately plastic; few fine roots; few fine tubular pores; few faint clay films on faces of peds; common fine soft calcium carbonate masses; violently effervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.2); abrupt smooth boundary. (2 to 7 inches thick)
Btk3--10 to 13 inches; yellowish red (5YR 4/6) very gravelly clay loam, yellowish red (5YR 4/6) moist; weak fine subangular blocky structure; hard, friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; few faint clay films on faces of peds; 40 percent by volume angular pan fragments and 20 percent gravel; violently effervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.2); abrupt smooth boundary. (1 to 3 inches thick)
2Bkqm--13 to 60 inches; indurated silica-calcium carbonate cemented duripan with a thin laminar layer on the surface; massive; extremely hard; violently effervescent.
TYPE LOCATION: Maricopa County, Arizona; 1,300 feet east and 2,500 feet south of the northwest corner of sec. 13, T. 4 N., R. 1 W. Latitude of 33 degrees, 41 minutes, 23 seconds N., Longitude of 112 degrees, 19 minutes, 14 seconds W., NAD 83.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:
Soil moisture: Intermittently moist in some part of the soil moisture control section during December-February and July-September. Driest during May and June. Typic aridic soil moisture regime.
Depth to indurated pan: 6 to 20 inches
Desert pavement: Well developed, covers about 80 percent of the soil surface
Rock fragments: 0 to 35 percent in the control section
Cementation: hardpan is silica-calcium carbonate cemented with a thin laminar cap
Organic matter: Less than 1 percent
A and B horizons
Hue: 5YR, 7.5YR, 10YR
Value: 4 through 7 dry, 3 through 5 moist
Chroma: 3 through 6, dry or moist
Texture: 1oam, c1ay loam (15 to 85 percent gravel)
Btk horizons
Hue: 5YR, 7.5YR
Value: 4 through 6 dry, 3 or 4 moist
Chroma: 3 through 6, dry or moist
Texture: clay, sandy clay loam, loam (18 to 35 percent clay)
Bkqm horizon: Occurs as one indurated layer ranging from 6 inches to 3 feet thick or as several thin layers 1/2 to 3 inches thick with softer material in between
COMPETING SERIES: There are no competing series.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Suncity soils are on fan terraces and have slopes of 0 to 10 percent. Elevations are 400 to 2,600 feet. These soils formed in old mixed alluvium weathered from a wide variety of rocks. Suncity soils are in a hot arid continental climate. Mean annual air temperature ranges from 67 to 75 percent F. Mean annual precipitation is 4 to 10 inches and falls mainly as thunderstorms in July, August and September, and as gentle rains in the winter. The frost-free period is 240 to 325 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Beardsley, Carefree, Cipriano, Contine, Pinal and Rillito soils. Beardsley soils are fine textured and moderately deep to a hardpan. Carefree and Contine soils are fine textured and do not have a duripan. Rillito soils do not have argillic horizons and duripans.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained; slow runoff; slow permeability.
USE AND VEGETATION: Used for livestock grazing and for production of cover and feed for wildlife. Vegetation is creosotebush, bursage, ocotillo, cacti, scattered ironwood and paloverde.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southern and central Arizona. These soils are moderately extensive. MLRA is 40.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Phoenix, Arizona
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Maricopa County, Arizona, Central part; 1972.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 1 inch (A horizon)
Argillic horizon - the zone from 3 to 13 inches (Btk1, Btk2, Btk3 horizons)
Calcic horizon - the zone from 3 to 13 inches (Btk1, Btk2, Btk3 horizons)
Duripan- the zone from 13 to 60 inches (2Bkqm horizon)
Classified according to Soil Taxonomy, Second Edition, 1999; Keys to Soil Taxonomy, Tenth Edition, 2006.
Revised for the correlation of AZ661, 2/2009, WWJ