LOCATION UTICA                   MT+CO

Established Series
Rev. CAM-JAL-EMM
03/2014

UTICA SERIES

The Utica series consists of very deep, excessively drained soils formed in alluvium or colluvium derived from limestone. These soils are on stream terraces, outwash fans and escarpments. Slopes are 0 to 35 percent. The mean annual precipitation is about 16 inches and the mean annual temperature is about 42 degrees F.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Sandy-skeletal, carbonatic, frigid Typic Calciustolls

TYPICAL PEDON: Utica gravelly loam - native grass (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise stated.)

A--0 to 6 inches; very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) gravelly loam, very dark brown (10YR 2/2) moist; weak coarse and fine granular structure; soft, friable; many fine roots; many fine and medium interstitial] pores; 20 percent gravel; strongly effervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.4); clear boundary. (5 to 10 inches thick)

Bk--6 to 19 inches; light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4) very gravelly sandy loam, dark brown (10YR 4/3) moist; massive; few tubular pores; common fine roots; soft, friable, nonsticky and nonplastic; 40 percent gravel, 10 percent cobbles; some cementation of sand and small gravel to undersides of cobbles; prominent stalactites on undersides of gravel, all gravel coated with lime; strongly effervescent; strongly alkaline (pH 8.6); clear boundary. (5 to 20 inches thick)

2C--19 to 72 inches; loose sand and gravel, 70 percent by volume coarse gravel and cobbles with 30 percent sand; calcareous with lime coats on undersides of gravel and cobbles, decreasing with increased depth; moderately alkaline.

TYPE LOCATION: Judith Basin County, Montana; 1330 feet north, 920 feet
west of east 1/4 corner, Section 23, T13N, R13E, 50 feet west from bench edge.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:

Mean annual soil temperature: 42 to 47 degrees F.
Mean summer soil temperature: 60 to 64 degrees F.

A horizon
Hue: 10YR or 2.5Y
Value: 4 or 5 dry, 2 or 3 moist
Chroma: 2 or 3
Texture: loam or sandy loam
Clay content: 5 to 20 percent
Rock fragments: 15 to 35 percent; 0 to 5 percent cobbles, 15 to 30 percent gravel
Reaction: pH 7.4 to 8.4

Bk horizon
Hue: 7.5YR, 10YR or 2.5Y
Value: 6 to 8 dry
Chroma: 2 to 4
Clay content: 5 to 10 percent
Rock fragments: 25 to 60 percent; 0 to 15 percent cobbles, 25 to 45 percent gravel
Reaction: pH 7.9 to 9.0

2C horizon
Hue: 7.5YR, 10YR or 2.5Y
Value: 6 to 8 dry
Chroma: 2 to 4
Texture: sand or loamy sand
Clay content: 0 to 5 percent
Rock fragments: 50 to 80 percent; 10 to 25 percent cobbles, 40 to 80 percent gravel
Reaction: pH 7.9 to 9.0

COMPETING SERIES: There are no competing series.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING:

Landform - stream terraces, outwash fans, and escarpments
Elevation - 2500 to 5500 feet
Slope - 0 to 35 percent
Parent material - alluvium or colluvium derived from limestone
Climate - cool, moist-semiarid with cold dry winters and moderately warm, moist summers.
Mean annual precipitation - 13 to 17 inches, more than 70 percent of which falls from April to October.
Mean annual air temperature - 40 to 44 degrees F., mean January air temperature is 18 to 25 degrees F. and mean July air temperature is 62 to 66 degrees F.
Frost-free period - 80 to 105 days.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: None listed.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Excessively drained; rapid permeability.

USE AND VEGETATION: Utica soils are used extensively for range of bluebunch wheatgrass, western wheatgrass, blue grama, prairie junegrass, threadleaf sedge and fringed sagewort.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Utica soils are moderately extensive adjacent to and east of the Northern Rocky Mountains. MLRAs 43B, 44B, and 46.

MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Bozeman, Montana

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Lincoln County (Star Valley) Wyoming, 1943.

REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
Mollic epipedon - the zone from the surface to 7 inches mixed (A and part of the Bk horizon);
Calcic horizon - the zone from 6 to 19 inches (Bk horizon);
Lithologic discontinuity - at 19 inches (2C horizon);
Particle-size control section from 10 to 40 inches (part of the Bk and the 2C horizon).

Utica soils have a frigid temperature regime and an ustic moisture regime.

---

National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.