LOCATION TONALEA AZEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Mixed, mesic Aridic Ustipsamments
TYPICAL PEDON: Tonalea loamy fine sand - grazable woodland, on a 6 percent, north-facing slope. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise noted.)
A--0 to 3 inches; brown (7.5YR 5/4) loamy fine sand, brown (7.5YR 4/4) moist; weak fine subangular blocky structure; soft, very friable, nonsticky and nonplastic; many very fine roots; many very fine interstitial pores; noneffervescent; slightly alkaline; clear smooth boundary. (0 to 4 inches thick)
C1--3 to 11 inches; brown (7.5YR 5/4) loamy fine sand, brown (7.5YR 4/4) moist; weak medium subangular blocky structure; soft, very friable, nonsticky and nonplastic; many very fine and few coarse roots; many very fine tubular pores; noneffervescent; slightly alkaline; gradual smooth boundary. (10 to 19 inches thick)
C2--11 to 24 inches; brown (7.5YR 5/4) loamy fine sand, brown (7.5YR 4/4) moist; massive; slightly hard, very friable, nonsticky and nonplastic; few fine roots; few fine tubular pores; slightly effervescent; moderately alkaline; clear smooth boundary. (9 to 16 inches thick)
2Cr--24 to 26 inches; weathered, soft calcareous sandstone.
3R--26 inches; unweathered sandstone.
TYPE LOCATION: Navajo County, Arizona; about 8 miles west of Cottonwood Spring, 0.3 miles north of the Black Mesa pipeline; 3600 feet west and 2400 feet north of the intersection of metric coordinates 4016 N. and 521 E.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:
Soil moisture - Intermittently moist in some part of the soil moisture control section during July-September and December-March. Driest during May and June. Aridic ustic soil moisture regime.
Soil temperature - 50 to 56 degrees F.
Depth to bedrock (lithic contact) - 20 to 40 inches. A paralithic contact, when present, is less than 3 inches thick and not diagnostic.
A horizon
Value: 5 or 6 dry, 4 or 5 moist
Chroma: 4 or 6, dry and moist
C horizon
Hue: 7.5YR, 10YR
Value: 5 or 6 dry, 4 or 5 moist
Chroma: 3, 4, or 6, dry or moist
Texture: Sand, loamy sand, loamy fine sand, fine sand
Reaction: slightly to moderately alkaline
Weathered bedrock: Some pedons lack a thin layer of weathered or fractured rock above the unweathered bedrock.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the These are the Blueridge (NE), Colfer (NE), Dankworth (NE), Optima (KS), Royosa (NM) and Scoville (NE) series. Blueridge, Colfer, Dankworth, Optima, and Scoville soils are in LRR-G and LRR-H and are moist in May and June). Royosa soils are very deep..
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Tonalea soils are on dunes on summits and shoulders of hills and plateaus. These soils formed in eolian deposits derived from sandstone. Slopes range from 1 to 20 percent. Elevations are 5600 to 6800 feet. The mean annual precipitation is 14 to 18 inches. The mean annual air temperature is 48 to 54 degrees F. The frost-free period is 120 to 150 days. Precipitation falls as intense summer thunderstorms and gentle winter rain or snow.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Begay, Kydestea, Mido, Penistaja, Travessilla, and Zyme soils. Begay and Penistaja are very deep soils on undulating plateaus. Kydestea soils contain greater than 35 percent rock fragments in the control section and hard sandstone at less than 20 inches. Mido soils are 40 inches or more deep. Travessilla soils are shallow to hard, fractured sandstone on mesa edges. Zyme soils are fine-textured and shallow to soft shale.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Excessively drained; slow to
medium runoff; rapid permeability.
USE AND VEGETATION: Tonalea soils are used for grazable woodland, fuelwood production and wildlife habitat. Vegetation is Utah juniper and pinyon pine with an understory of Indian ricegrass, blue grama, bottlebrush squirreltail, Stansbury cliffrose, and Wyoming big sagebrush.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Northern Arizona. MLRA 35. The soils of this series are of moderate extent but have been treated as inclusions in other survey areas when adjacent to the Royosa series.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Phoenix, Arizona
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Navajo County, Arizona; Soil survey of Hopi Area, Parts of Coconino and Navajo Counties; 1985.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
Ochric epipedon - The zone from 0 to 3 inches (A horizon)
Entisol feature - The lack of diagnostic subsurface horizons
Lithic contact - The boundary at 26 inches (3R horizon)
Classified according to Soil Taxonomy Second Edition, 1999; Keys to Soil Taxonomy Tenth Edition, 2006.
Classification changed from Typic to Aridic subgroup in 2007. The change in subgroup was made to be consistent with the moisture regime.