LOCATION TIPPAH MS+AR LA TNEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, active, thermic Aquic Paleudalfs
TYPICAL PEDON: Tippah silt loam--cultivated. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated.)
Ap--0 to 6 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) silt loam; weak fine granular structure; friable; few fine roots; strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (2 to 8 inches thick)
Bt1--6 to 15 inches; yellowish red (5YR 5/6) silty clay loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; slightly plastic; few fine roots; thin patchy clay films on faces of peds; strongly acid; gradual smooth boundary.
Bt2--15 to 25 inches; yellowish red (5YR 4/6) silt loam; few fine distinct pale brown (10YR 6/3) mottles; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine roots; thin patchy clay films on faces of peds; common medium black and brown concretions and stains; strongly acid; gradual smooth boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bt1 and Bt2 is 17 to 26 inches.)
Bt3--25 to 31 inches; yellowish red (5YR 4/6) silty clay loam; few fine prominent light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) mottles; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine roots; thin continuous clay films on faces of peds; few fine black concretions; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (4 to 8 inches thick)
2Bt4--31 to 37 inches; red (2.5YR 4/6) silty clay loam; common medium prominent gray (10YR 5/1) and light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) mottles; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; firm; plastic; thin continuous clay films on faces of peds; very strongly acid; gradual smooth boundary.
2Bt5--37 to 44 inches; red (2.5YR 4/6) silty clay; common fine prominent gray (10YR 5/1) and light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) mottles; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; firm, plastic; thin continuous clay films on faces of peds; very strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (Combined thickness of the upper part of the 2Bt subhorizon is 6 to 30 inches.)
2Bt6--44 to 60 inches; mottled red (2.5YR 4/6), gray (10YR 6/1) and brownish yellow (10YR 6/6) clay; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; firm, plastic; thin continuous clay films on faces of peds; very strongly acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Pontotoc County, Mississippi; 13.0 miles west of Pontotoc, on State Highway 6, 0.5 mile south on rural road and 150 feet west into field; SW1/4SW1/4 sec. 18, T. 9 S., R. 1 E.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The solum is more than 60 inches in thickness. This soil is very strongly acid to medium acid, except the surface layer in areas that have been limed. The calcium-magnesium ratio is about 1 or less in the Bt horizon.
The Ap horizon has hue of 10YR, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 2 to 6; undisturbed pedons may have an A horizon less than 6 inches thick in hue of 10YR, value of 3, and chroma of 1 or 2. The A horizon is loam or silt loam.
The E horizon, where present, has hue of 10YR, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 2 to 6. It is loam or silt loam.
The Bt horizon has hue of 2.5YR or 5YR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 4 to 6, or it has hue of 7.5, value of 5, and chroma of 6 to 8. The lower part of the Bt horizon has few to many mottles in shades of brown, gray, or yellow and within a depth of 30 inches of the surface there are mottles with chroma of 2 or less. The Bt horizon is silt loam or silty clay loam and has 20 to 35 percent clay in the upper 20 inches.
The 2Bt subhorizons either have a matrix ranging from red to gray, with few to many mottles in shades of yellow, brown, red, or gray; or they are mottled in shades of red, gray, brown, and yellow. The texture is silty clay loam, clay loam, sandy clay, silty clay, or clay.
COMPETING SERIES: Muskogee is the only other series in this family. Series in similar families are the Atwood, Bude, Calloway, Counts, Falkner, Katy, Kipling, Paden, Providence, Siwell, and Vian series. Muskogee soils have a calcium-magnesium ratio of more than 1.0. Atwood soils do not have mottles with chroma of 2 or less within 30 inches of the surface, and they do not have the clayey 2Bt horizon. Bude, Calloway, and Paden soils have a fragipan and do not have an argillic horizon above the fragipan; in addition, Paden soils have less than 35 percent base saturation. Counts soils, which are in a fine family, have an abrupt textural change at the upper boundary of the Bt horizon. Falkner soils have a Bt horizon with the matrix in hue of 10YR or 2.5Y. Katy soils have a fine-loamy particle-size class. Kipling soils have a fine particle-size class and montmorillonitic mineralogy. Providence soils have a fragipan. Siwell soils have a solum less than 60 inches thick and a neutral to moderately alkaline clayey 2C horizon. Vian soils have siliceous mineralogy and the matrix of the Bt horizon typically is in hue of 10YR.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Tippah soils are in landscapes of low relief in uplands and on stream terraces in the Southern Mississippi Valley Silty Uplands. The Tippah soils formed in a silty mantle and the underlying clayey sediments. These are nearly level to strongly sloping soils. Slopes range from 0 to 12 percent. The climate is warm and humid. The mean annual temperature is about 62 degrees F., and the mean annual precipitation is 48 inches near the type location.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Atwood, Bude, Falkner, and Providence soils of the competing series and the Adaton and Henry series. Well drained Atwood and somewhat poorly drained Falkner soils are on similar positions in the landscape as the Tippah soils. Poorly drained Adaton soils, which are in broad flats, have a gray matrix below the surface layer. Somewhat poorly drained Bude soils are in slightly lower positions. Poorly drained Henry soils, which are in depressions and near the heads of drainageways, have a predominantly gray matrix. Moderately well drained Providence soils are mainly in slightly higher positions on ridgetops.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Moderately well drained; low to medium runoff; permeability is moderate in the surface and upper part of the subsoil and slow in the lower part of the subsoil. The saturated hydraulic conductivity class is moderately low. Water is perched above the clayey subsoil at a depth of 2 to 2.5 feet during wet seasons late in winter and early in spring.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas of this soil have been cleared and are used for growing cotton, soybeans, corn, pasture, and hay. Forested areas are in oaks, hickory, elm, poplar, shortleaf, and loblolly pines.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Eastern Arkansas and western Mississippi and Tennessee. The series is of large extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Auburn, Alabama
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Tippah County, Mississippi; 1938.