LOCATION SUNDOG MIEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy over sandy or sandy-skeletal, mixed, superactive, frigid Entic Haplorthods
TYPICAL PEDON: Sundog very fine sandy loam - in a red pine plantation. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated.)
A--0 to 4 inches; dark brown (7.5YR 3/2) very fine sandy loam, grayish brown (10YR 5/2) dry; weak fine granular structure; friable; common fine roots; about 5 percent gravel and 5 percent cobbles; moderately acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (0 to 6 inches thick)
E--4 to 6 inches; gray (5YR 5/1) very fine sandy loam; weak fine subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine and medium roots; about 5 percent gravel and 5 percent cobbles; moderately acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (1 to 4 inches thick)
Bs1--6 to 9 inches; dark reddish brown (5YR 3/4) very fine sandy loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; many fine and medium roots; about 5 percent gravel and 5 percent cobbles; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (3 to 13 inches thick)
Bs2--9 to 15 inches; dark brown (7.5YR 4/4) very fine sandy loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine and medium roots; about 5 percent gravel and 5 percent cobbles; moderately acid; clear wavy boundary. (4 to 10 inches thick)
BC--15 to 22 inches; brown (7.5YR 5/4) gravelly very fine sandy loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine roots; about 20 percent gravel and 5 percent cobbles; moderately acid; clear wavy boundary. (0 to 10 inches thick)
2C1--22 to 43 inches; brown (7.5YR 5/4) sand with bands of loamy sand; single grain; loose few fine roots; about 5 percent gravel and 5 percent cobbles; moderately acid; clear wavy boundary. (18 to 27 inches thick)
2C2--43 to 60 inches; brown (7.5YR 5/4) very gravelly coarse sand with pockets of very fine sandy loam; single grain; loose; about 50 percent gravel and 5 percent cobbles; moderately acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Iron County, Michigan: about 6 miles north-northeast of the town of Amasa, 1,550 feet south and 200 feet east of the northwest corner of sec. 11, T. 45 N., R. 33 W.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The thickness of the solum ranges from 15 to 30 inches. Gravel content ranges from 0 to 15 percent in the A, E and Bs horizons, 15 to 35 percent in the BC horizon and 0 to 60 percent in the 2C horizon. Volume of cobbles ranges from 0 to 45 percent in the A and E horizons and 0 to 15 percent throughout the remainder of the pedon. Stone content ranges from 0 to 5 percent throughout. Reaction is very strongly acid to moderately acid in the solum and moderately acid in the substratum.
Some pedons have an O horizon with hue of 5YR or 7.5YR, or it is neutral. It has value of 2 or 3, and chroma of 0 to 1. The A horizon has hue of 5YR to 10YR, value of 2 or 3, and chroma of 1 or 2. The E horizon has hue of 5YR or 7.5YR, vale of 4 or 5, and chroma of 1 or 2. The A and E horizons are silt loam, very fine sandy loam, fine sandy loam, or the cobbly analogs of these textures.
The Bs1 horizon has hue of 5YR or 7.5YR, value and chroma of 3 or 4. Value and chroma of 3 do not occur together. The Bs2 horizon has hue of 5YR or 7.5YR, value of 4 or 5 and chroma of 4 to 6. The Bs horizons are silt loam, loam, very fine sandy loam, or fine sandy loam. The BC horizon has hue of 5YR to 10YR, value of 4 or 5 and chroma of 4 to 6. It is gravelly very fine sandy loam or gravelly fine sandy loam.
The 2C horizons have hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 4 to 6 and chroma of 2 to 6. They are sand, coarse sand or the gravelly or very gravelly analogs of these textures.
COMPETING SERIES: There are no other series in the same family. Closely related is the Amasa series which has a thicker and darker colored upper spodic horizon.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Sundog soils are on level to very steep outwash plains, eskers, crevasse fillings, stream terraces, and moraines of Wisconsin age. These soils formed in reworked loamy eolian deposits over sandy and gravelly glaciofluvial deposits. Slopes are dominantly 1 to 18 percent, but range up to 70 percent. Steep and very steep slopes are along streams and lakes and on eskers and crevasse fillings. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 30 to 34 inches and the mean annual temperature is about 41 to 43 degrees F.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the well drained and moderately well drained Wabeno, Petticoat, and Champion soils and the somewhat excessively drained Karlin soils on similar landscapes. The somewhat poorly drained Channing soils, the poorly drained Minocqua soils, and the very poorly drained Cathro soils are in depressions and drainageways.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. Surface runoff is slow to rapid. Permeability is moderate in the upper part of the profile and rapid or very rapid in the lower part.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most of this soil supports second growth woodland. Present overstory vegetation consists of red maple, quaking and bigtooth aspen, balsam fir, white and black spruce, and some eastern hemlock and sugar maple. Understory vegetation includes bracken fern, wild lily-of-the-valley, Canada blueberry, wild sarsaparilla, wood betony, and spinulose shield fern, with goldthread, bunchberry, and wood sorrel present on the moderately well drained areas of this soil. Cleared areas are used for hay, small grain, potatoes, pasture and red pine plantations.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Central and western Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and possible adjacent areas of Wisconsin. The series is of moderate extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: St. Paul, Minnesota.
SERIES PROPOSED: Iron County, Michigan, 1990. The source of the name is a lake in Iron and Marquette Counties.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this soil are: ochric epipedon - the zone from the surface to 4 inches (A horizon); albic horizon - the zone from 4 to 6 inches (E horizon); spodic horizon - the zone from 6 to 15 inches (Bs1 and Bs2 horizons); lithologic discontinuity from reworked loamy eolian material to sandy outwash at 22 inches. The loamy eolian material has been mixed and reworked due to windthrow modification and postglacial erosion.