LOCATION TATE NC+TN VAEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, semiactive, mesic Typic Hapludults
TYPICAL PEDON: Tate loam, in pasture. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated.)
Ap--0 to 7 inches; dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) loam; moderate fine granular structure; very friable; many fine roots; few fine pores; few root channels; contains some material from the BA horizon; moderately acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (5 to 11 inches thick)
BA--7 to 12 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine roots; common fine pores; common root channels; moderately acid; clear smooth boundary. (0 to 14 inches thick)
Bt--12 to 32 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) clay loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine roots; few fine pores; few faint clay films on faces of peds and in pores; few fine flakes of mica; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (15 to 40 inches thick)
BC--32 to 46 inches; brownish yellow (10YR 6/6) sandy clay loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; few faint clay films on faces of peds; many pebbles; common fine flakes of mica; strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (3 to 20 inches thick)
C--46 to 72 inches; brownish yellow (10YR 6/8) and light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4) fine sandy loam; massive; friable; common quartz pebbles in upper part; strongly acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Allegheny County, North Carolina; 2 1/2 miles west of Roaring Gap, 1 mile west of Highway 18, in pasture 50 yards west of field road.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum ranges from 24 to more than 60 inches. Depth to bedrock is greater than 60 inches. Content of rock fragments is less than 35 percent by volume in the A and Bt horizons, and less than 60 percent in the BC and C horizons. The soil is very strongly acid to slightly acid unless limed. Content of mica flakes is few or common.
The A or Ap horizon has hue of 10YR, value of 3 to 6, and chroma of 2 through 4. After mixing to a depth of 7 inches, value is 4 or more. The A horizon is loam, sandy loam, or fine sandy loam in the fine earth fraction.
The E horizon, where present, has hue of 10YR, value of 4 or 6, and chroma of 3 to 6. Texture is similar to the A horizon.
The BA or BE horizon, where present, has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 3 to 6. It is loam, sandy loam, fine sandy loam, sandy clay loam, or clay loam in the fine earth fraction.
The Bt horizon has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 4 to 8. It is clay loam, sandy clay loam, or loam in the fine earth fraction. The upper 20 inches of the argillic horizon contain less than 30 percent silt.
The BC horizon, where present, is similar in color to the Bt horizon and is fine sandy loam, loam, clay loam, sandy loam, or sandy clay loam in the fine earth fraction. It commonly contains moderate amounts of weathered feldspar and pebbles and cobbles of quartz and granite.
The C horizon, where present, is colluvial material that is loamy or sandy in the fine-earth fraction and is variable in color. Sandy textures are restricted to depths below 40 inches.
COMPETING SERIES: Excluding CEC activity class, there are 54 competing series. Those found within MLRA 130 include the Brasstown, Cades, Edneytown, Junaluska, Lonon, Pigeonroost, and Sauratown series. Brasstown and Pigeonroost soils have paralithic contact at depths of 40 to 60 inches. Cades soils formed in alluvium weathered from low grade metamorphic rocks and contain fragments of those rocks. Edneytown soils formed in residuum and have C horizons of saprolite. Junaluska soils have paralithic contact at depths of 20 to 40 inches. Lonon soils formed in colluvium weathered from low grade metamorphic rocks and contain fragments of those rocks. Sauratown soils have lithic contact at depths of 40 to 60 inches.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Tate soils are on colluvial fans, foot slopes, and benches in coves in the Blue Ridge (MLRA 130). Slopes are commonly 5 to 15 percent but range from 2 to 50 percent. Elevation ranges from 1400 to 4000 feet. The soil formed in colluvium weathered from felsic to mafic high-grade metamorphic rocks such as granite, mica gneiss, hornblende gneiss, and schist. Mean annual temperature is 52 degrees F., and mean annual precipitation about 52 inches near the type location.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: In addition to the competing Edneytown, Pigeonroost, and Sauratown series, these are Ashe, Brevard, Chandler, Chestnut, Cowee, Edneyville, Evard, Fannin, Greenlee, Tusquitee, and Watauga series. Ashe, Chandler, Chestnut, Cowee, Edneyville, Edneytown, Evard, Fannin, and Watauga soils are on ridges and side slopes, formed in residuum, and have C horizons of saprolite. Brevard, Greenlee, and Tusquitee soils formed in colluvial material on fans, benches, and foot slopes in coves. Brevard soils have redder Bt horizons. Greenlee soils are in a loamy-skeletal particle-size class. Tusquitee soils have darker colored A horizons that have more organic matter. . In addition, Greenlee and Tusquitee soils have a cambic horizon.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained; saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high or high, permeability is moderate in the subsoil and moderately rapid permeability in the underlying material. Index surface runoff is negligible to medium. These soils receive surface and subsurface water from surrounding uplands, and seeps and springs are possible.
USE AND VEGETATION: About half is cleared and used for growing corn, small grain, tobacco, truck crops, and pasture. Common trees in forested areas are scarlet oak, white oak, yellow-poplar, eastern white pine, shortleaf pine, Virginia pine, and northern red oak. Understory plants include mountain-laurel, rhododendron, blueberry, greenbrier, flowering dogwood, black locust, honeysuckle, sourwood, and flame azalea.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Blue Ridge (MLRA 130) of North Carolina, Virginia, eastern Tennessee, and possibly Georgia and South Carolina. The series has large extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Transylvania County, North Carolina; 1940.
REMARKS: The 12/97 revision places this soil in a fine-loamy, mixed, semiactive, mesic Typic Hapludults family per the 7th Edition of Keys to Soil Taxonomy. Family placement is based on similar soils such as Edneytown, Edneyville and Greenlee. Sample pedon S91-NC-171-004 classifies as fine-loamy, siliceous, subactive, mesic Typic Hapludults, which influenced placement in the semiactive class. This pedon was nearly placed in a parasesquic mineralogy class due to x-ray diffraction data, but since these methods are more qualitative rather than quantitative, mineralogy class placement based on grain count data. Classification of this series may change when more mineralogy data are available.
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
Ochric epipedon: 0 to 7 inches (Ap and BA horizons)
Argillic horizon: 7 to 46 inches (Bt, and BC horizons).
ADDITIONAL DATA:
MLRA: 130 SIR(s): NC0025, NC0258 (GRAVELLY)
Revised: 11/90-RM,CD,AG; 1/98-DHK; 2/04-MKC