LOCATION SWANSEA MA+RI
Established Series
Rev. PCF-DGG-DAS
02/2014
SWANSEA SERIES
The Swansea series consists of very poorly drained organic soils. They formed in 40 to 130 centimeters of highly decomposed organic material over sandy mineral. These soils are in depressions or on flat level areas on uplands and outwash plains. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high or high in the organic material and very high in the substratum. The mean annual temperature is about 9 degrees Celsius and the mean annual precipitation is about 1143 millimeters.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Sandy or sandy-skeletal, mixed, dysic, mesic Terric Haplosaprists
TYPICAL PEDON: Swansea muck - on a 0 percent slope in a wooded area. When described the soil was wet and the depth to the water table was 4 inches. (Colors are for moist soils.)
Oa1--0 to 5 cm.; dark reddish brown (5YR 2/2) broken face and rubbed muck (sapric material); 15 percent fiber, 2 percent rubbed; weak medium granular structure; very friable; many medium roots; less than 5 percent mineral; extremely acid; abrupt wavy boundary.
Oa2--5 to 23 cm.; black (5YR 2/1) broken face and rubbed sapric material; 10 percent fiber, 2 percent rubbed; weak medium granular structure; very friable; common medium roots; less than 5 percent mineral; extremely acid; abrupt wavy boundary.
Oa3--23 to 33 cm.; black (N 2/) broken face and rubbed sapric material; 10 percent fiber, 2 percent rubbed; massive; very friable; few fine roots; contains 5 percent brown (7.5YR 4/4) woody fragments 1 to 4 inches in diameter; less than 5 percent mineral; extremely acid; abrupt wavy boundary.
Oa4--33 to 66 cm.; black (N 2/) broken face and rubbed sapric material; 5 percent fiber, 0 percent rubbed; massive; very friable; few fine roots; less than 5 percent mineral; extremely acid; abrupt wavy boundary.
Cg1--66 to 81 cm.; light olive gray (5Y 6/2) loamy coarse sand; single grain; loose; very strongly acid; abrupt wavy boundary.
Cg2--81 to 165 cm.; light olive gray (5Y 6/2) gravelly loamy coarse sand; single grain; loose; 30 percent gravel; very strongly acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Bristol County, Massachusetts, Town of Swansea, 1,000 feet east of Old Fall River Road, 1,000 feet south of Interstate 295, and 80 feet north of the telephone line. Latitude 41 degrees 45 minutes 57 seconds N. and longitude 71 degrees 14 minutes 49 seconds W., NAD 27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The depth to the Cg horizon is 40 to 130 centimeters. Cumulative layers of hemic materials comprise less than 25 centimeters and fibric materials less than 12 centimeters of the subsurface and bottom tiers. Woody fragments are in some part of the organic material in most pedons and comprise up to 25 percent of some horizons. Fragments consist of twigs, branches, logs, or stumps and are 2 centimeters to more than 30 centimeters in diameter. Woody fragments are firm but break abruptly under pressure. Reaction is less than 4.5 in 0.01 molar calcium chloride throughout the organic material.
The surface tier has hue of 5YR through 10YR, value of 2 or 3, and chroma of 0 to 2. In some pedons the chroma ranges to 4. It is dominantly sapric material; however, in some pedons it has various proportions of both sapric and hemic materials or has fibric materials. It has weak or moderate, fine or medium, granular or subangular blocky structure or it is massive. Some pedons have a mineral surface layer of sand or coarse sand that is 10 to 25 centimeters thick.
The subsurface and bottom tiers, above the C horizon, have hue of 5YR through 10YR, value of 2 to 3, and chroma of 0 to 3. Chroma or value or both may change from 0.5 to 2 units upon rubbing. Broken faces become darker upon brief exposure to air. The subsurface tier is dominated by sapric material with a rubbed fiber content of less than 16 percent of the organic volume. The subsurface and bottom tiers have platy structure or are massive. They are very friable or friable. Unrubbed organic material resembles herbaceous and woody plant tissues.
The C or Cg horizon has hue of 10YR to 5Y, value of 3 to 6, and chroma of 1 to 4. Redoximorphic features are present in some pedons. It ranges from coarse sand to loamy fine sand and their gravelly analogs but may include some finer-textured lenses or horizons in some pedons. Rock fragment content ranges from 0 to 45 percent and is commonly gravel but includes cobbles in some pedons. Reaction ranges from extremely acid to strongly acid.
COMPETING SERIES: This is the
Makinen series which are from outside LRR R and S. The Makinen soils receive less than 813 millimeters of mean annual precipitation and have less gravel in the substratum.
Freetown and
Paupack are similar soils in related families. Freetown soils have organic layers greater than 130 centimeters. Paupack soils are underlain by loamy skeletal or clayey skeletal mineral material.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Swansea soils are in swamps and bogs that range from small enclosed depressions to areas of several hundred acres in size. They are on outwash plains, till plains and moraines. Slope ranges from 0 to 1 percent. Mean annual temperature is 7 to 10 degrees Celsius and mean annual precipitation is 1016 to 1270 millimeters. The frost-free period is 120 to 180 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the
Freetown,
Hinckley,
Windsor,
Ridgebury,
Whitman, and
Scarboro soils on nearby landscapes. Freetown soils are on similar landscapes and have more than 130 centimeters of organic material. The excessively drained Hinckley and Windsor soils are on nearby outwash landforms. The somewhat poorly and poorly drained Ridgebury soils and the very poorly drained Whitman and Scarboro soils formed in glacial till are adjacent to areas of Swansea soils.
DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Very poorly drained. Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity is moderately high or high in the organic material and very high in the substratum.
USE AND VEGETATION: Mostly forested. Native vegetation includes red maple, American elm, green ash, eastern hemlock, Atlantic white cedar, buttonbush, winterberry, swamp azalea, and leatherleaf. Some acreage has been cleared and is used for truck crops. The main crop is cranberries.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Swamps and bogs in Massachusetts and Rhode Island; MLRAs 144A, 145, 149B. The series is of moderate extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts.
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Bristol County, Massachusetts, 1979
REMARKS: These soils were previously mapped in Massachusetts as Cranberry bog, Medisaprists, and Muck and in some areas as Adrian soils. The Type Location is pedon T1MA603018, also the typical pedon for the soil survey of Bristol County, MA, Southern Part.
Diagnostic horizons and features in this pedon include:
1. Terric feature - mineral soil from a depth of 66 to 165 centimeters (2Cg horizons).
2. Lithic discontinuity - there is a significant change in particle size at a depth of 66 centimeters (Cg1 horizon).
3. Sapric material from 0 to 66 centimeters (Oa horizons)
4. Histic epipedon from 0 to 33 centimeters
5. Aquic conditions 0 to 165 centimeters
6. Endosaturation 0 to 165 centimeters
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National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.