LOCATION SYCOLINE VA+MDEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Aquultic Hapludalfs
TYPICAL PEDON: Sycoline silt loam on 2 to 7 percent slope in a pine and hardwood forest.
A--0 to 3 inches; very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) silt loam; moderate fine and very fine granular structure; friable; many fine, medium, and coarse roots; 10 percent angular granulite gravels; very strongly acid, clear smooth boundary. (2 to 5 inches thick)
E--3 to 8 inches; brown (10YR 5/3) silt loam; moderate fine granular structure; friable; slightly sticky, slightly plastic; many fine and medium roots; few coarse roots; 8 percent angular granulite gravels; very strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (3 to 10 inches thick)
Bt1--8 to 17 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) silty clay loam; moderate fine subangular blocky structure; friable; sticky; slightly plastic, many fine, medium and coarse roots; few fine pores; 5 percent angular granulite gravels; moderately acid; clear smooth boundary.
Bt2--17 to 28 inches; light gray (2.5Y 7/2) and grayish brown (2.5Y 5/2) silty clay loam; moderate fine and medium subangular blocky structure; sticky, slightly plastic; common fine and medium roots; common fine pores; many, medium, prominent dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/6) and brownish yellow (10YR 6/8) soft masses of iron accumulation; many thin and medium clay films on faces of peds; common Fe-Mn coatings and concretions; 10 percent angular granulite gravels; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (combined thickness of the Bt horizon ranges from 10 to 30 inches)
C--28 to 35 inches; brownish yellow (10YR 6/8) and yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) loam; light gray and dark gray clay flows 1/2 inch thick; massive; firm to very firm; 5 percent soft weathered-in-place granulite gravels; strongly acid. (0 to 15 inches thick)
R--35 inches; light gray and yellowish brown hard granulite and altered granulite.
TYPE LOCATION: Loudoun County, Virginia; north of county route 773 .7 miles east of the junction of U.S.-15 bypass, approximately 250 feet southwest of Leesburg water tower.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness is 15 to 30 inches. Depth to hard bedrock ranges from 20 to 40 inches. Some pedons have a paralithic contact over the hard bedrock. The substratum is saprolite from hornfel and granulite. Rock fragments of granulite and hornfel range from 0 to 35 percent in the solum. Rock fragments of granulite and hornfel range from 0 to 70 percent in the substratum. The fine earth fraction has more than 50 percent silt plus very fine sand. The soil is very strongly acid through moderately acid throughout.
The A or Ap horizon has hue of l0YR or 2.5Y, value of 3 through 5, and chroma of 1 through 4. It is a silt loam in the fine earth fraction.
The E horizon has hue of l0YR through 5Y, value of 3 to 6, and chroma of 1 through 8. It is a silt loam in the fine earth fraction.
The Bt horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 5Y, value of 3 through 7, and chroma of 1 through 8. It is a silt loam or silty clay loam in the fine earth fraction.
The C horizon is saprolite that weathers from granulite and hornfel and is multicolored in shades of brown, yellow and gray. It is loam or silt loam in the fine earth fraction.
COMPETING SERIES: Coshocton soil is the only soil in the same family. It is 40 to 72 inches or more to Appalachian shales, sandstone, and siltstones bedrock.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Sycoline soils are on upland sideslopes in the Culpeper Basin of the northern part of the Piedmont. Slope ranges from 2 to 25 percent. The soils developed from hornfel and granulite. Mean annual temperature ranges from 53 to 57 degrees F and mean annual precipitation ranges from 38 to 44 inches.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These include the Albano, Catlett, and Kelly soils. Albano soils are in concave landscape positions and have more than 35 percent clay. Catlett soils are less than 20 inches to soft bedrock. Kelly soils have more than 35 percent clay in the control section.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Moderately well to somewhat poorly drained; slow to rapid runoff; moderately slow permeability in upper solum, very slow permeability in lower solum.
USE AND VEGETATION: Cleared areas are used largely for pasture with a minor acreage used for small grain, hay, and corn. About 50 percent is in woodland consisting of oak, ash, maple, dogwoods, and Virginia pine.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Culpeper Basin in Virginia and Maryland, possibly the southern part of the Gettysburg Basin in Maryland and Pennsylvania. The series is of moderate extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Prince William County Virginia, 1985.
REMARKS: The soil was previously included in the well drained Brecknock series. Lab data is available from the VPI&SU lab. The name is from a place in Loudoun County, Virginia.
REVISED = 2/18/2004, MAV added active ce activity class. 5/3/04 changed 5 to 30 percent fragments in the solum to 0 to 30 percent.