LOCATION TONAWANDA               NY

Established Series
Rev. PSP-SWF
01/2013

TONAWANDA SERIES


The Tonawanda series consists of very deep, somewhat poorly drained soils that formed in silty estaurine or glaciolacustrine deposits on glacial lake plains and terraces. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high or high. Slope ranges from 0 to 12 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 860 millimeters and mean annual temperature is about 9 degrees Celsius.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-silty, mixed, active, nonacid, mesic Aeric Endoaquepts

TYPICAL PEDON: Tonawanda silt loam, 0 to 3 percent slopes; in the town of Leon; 100 feet west of Frog Valley Road, 1/2 mile north of Frog Valley Road and Xura Road:

Ap-- 0 to 23 centimeters; very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) silt loam; moderate medium granular structure; friable; many fine roots; 2 percent rock fragments; neutral; abrupt smooth boundary. (10 to 25 centimters thick.)

Bw-- 23 to 36 centimeters; brown (10YR 5/3) silt loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; many fine roots; common medium distinct yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) masses of iron accumulation and few gray (10YR 6/1) areas of iron depletion; 2 percent rock fragments; slightly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (5 to 41 centimeters thick.)

Bg1-- 36 to 56 centimeters; grayish brown (10YR 5/2) silt loam; medium subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine roots; common medium prominent yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) and strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) masses of iron accumulation, and faint gray (10YR 6/1) areas of iron depletion; 2 percent rock fragments; slightly acid; gradual wavy boundary.

Bg2-- 56 to 97 centimeters; grayish brown (10YR 5/2) silt loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common medium prominent yellowish brown (10YR 5/8) and yellowish red (5YR 5/6) masses of iron accumulation, and faint gray (10YR 6/1) areas of iron depletion; 2 percent rock fragments; slightly acid; clear wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bg horizon is 20 to 76 centimeters thick.)

C1-- 97 to 163 centimeters; grayish brown (10YR 5/2), yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) and gray (10YR 6/1) silt loam; massive; friable; 5 percent rock fragments; slightly acid; abrupt wavy boundary.

C2-- 163 to 183 centimeters; grayish brown (10YR 5/2) stratified loamy fine sand and medium sands; massive; loose; 10 percent gravel; slightly acid.

TYPE LOCATION: Cattaraugus County, New York; Town of Leon; 100 feet west of Frog Valley Road, 1/2 mile north of Frog Valley Road and Xura Road. USGS Cherry Creek, NY topographic quadrangle; Latitude 42 degrees, 19 minutes, 58 seconds N. and Longitude 79 degrees, 3 minutes, 10 seconds W. NAD 1927.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The thickness of the solum ranges from 40 to 100 centimeters. Rock fragments range from 0 to 2 percent in the solum and 0 to 15 percent in the substratum. Reaction ranges from very strongly acid to neutral in the surface layer, strongly acid to neutral in the subsoil, and from moderately acid to slightly alkaline in the substratum. Below a depth of 100 centimeters from the surface, some pedons range to moderately alkaline and are effervescent.

The Ap horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 2 to 4, and chroma of 1 to 3. Texture is silt loam, silt, very fine sandy loam or loam. Some pedons have a thin A horizon or AB horizon.

The B horizon has hue of 5YR to 5Y, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 1 to 4. The matrix has a chroma of 3 or greater immediately below the A or Ap or to a depth of greater than 25 centimeters below the mineral surface. Texture is silt loam, loam, silt, very fine sandy loam, or loamy very fine sand. Thin layers, 2 to 7 centimeters thick, of sand or gravelly sand, and silty clay loam are in some pedons. Structure is weak or moderate, very fine to medium, granular or subangular blocky. Some B horizons have prismatic structure. Consistence is very friable to firm.

The C horizon has hue of 5YR to 5Y, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 1 to 6. Texture is silt loam, loam, silt, or very fine sandy loam. Thin strata of sand to fine sandy loam or silty clay loam are in some pedons. It is massive or has plate-like divisions. Consistence is loose to firm.

COMPETING SERIES: There are no other series in the same family.
Massena, Munson, Raypol, Scantic, Scitico, Wallington, and Walpole soils are similar soils in related families.. Massena soils have more than 15 percent fine sand or coarser including gravel in the particle size control section. Munson, Scantic, and Scitico soils have more than 18 percent clay in the lower part of the control section. Raypol soils are more acid. Wallington soils have a fragipan. Walpole soils have more than 70 percent fine sand or coarser in the substratum.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: The Tonawanda soils are level to strongly sloping soils on glacial lake plains and terraces. They are in depressions and drainageways and on side slopes of swells and knolls. Slope ranges from 0 to 12 percent. The soils formed in silty estuarine or glaciolacustrine deposits. The mean annual precipitation ranges from 660 to 1270millimeters and the mean annual temperature ranges from 7 to 13 degrees Celsius. The frost-free season ranges from 105 to 180 days.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Belgrade, Birdsall, Canandaigua, Eldridge, Enosburg, Hartland, Munson, Raypol, Scitico, Scio, Unadilla, and Walpole soils. The well drained Hartland and Unadilla, moderately well drained Belgrade and Scio, poorly and very poorly drained Canandaigua, and very poorly drained Birdsall soils are in a drainage sequence with Tonowanda soils. The Eldridge, Enosburg, Munson, Raypol, and Walpole soils are on nearby terraces or lake plains. Eldridge and Enosburg soils have sandy solums. Raypol and Walpole soils have sandy substrata.

DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Somewhat poorly drained. The potential for surface runoff is negligible, high, or very high. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high or high.

USE AND VEGETATION: Most cleared areas are used for hay and pasture. Some areas are drained and are used for corn or other row crops. In wooded areas the common trees are red maple, eastern white pine, white spruce, red spruce, elm, eastern hemlock, gray birch, sugar maple, white oak, balsam fir, and tamarack.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: New York. MLRA's 101, 140, 142, and 144A. The series is of small extent.

MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts.

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Erie County, New York 1923.

REMARKS: The Tonawanda series has been defined to assume the somewhat poorly drained pedons that had been called Raynham. The Tonowanda series was reactivated with the correlation of Cattaraugus County, NY 2002.

Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
a. Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 15 centimeters (Ap horizon).
b. Cambic horizon - the zone from 15 to 56 centimeters (Bw and Bg horizons).
c. Aeric feature - in 50 percent or more of the matrix, a hue of 10YR or yellower and a value and chroma, moist, of 3 or more (Bw horizon).


National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.