LOCATION WAPANUCKET MAEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Mixed, mesic Typic Udipsamments
TYPICAL PEDON: Wapanucket loamy sand on southwest-facing, convex, 5 percent slope in a cultivated field. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated.)
Ap-- 0 to 28 cm; very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) loamy sand, light yellowish brown (2.5Y 6/3) dry; massive; very friable; common fine and medium roots throughout; 8 percent subrounded gravel; slightly acid (pH 6.5; pH meter 1:1 water); abrupt smooth boundary. (8 to 36 cm thick.)
Bw1-- 28 to 56 cm; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) gravelly loamy sand; massive; very friable; common very fine and fine roots throughout; 17 percent subrounded gravel, 5 percent subrounded cobbles, 5 percent subrounded channers; neutral (pH 6.6; pH meter 1:1 water); clear wavy boundary.
Bw2-- 56 to 79 cm; brown (10YR 5/3) gravelly loamy coarse sand; single grain; loose; common very fine roots throughout; 19 percent subrounded gravel, 5 percent subrounded cobbles; neutral (pH 6.6; pH meter 1:1 water); gradual wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bw horizon is 13 to 89 cm.)
C1-- 79 to 122 cm; light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4) gravelly sand; single grain; loose; common very fine and fine roots throughout; 16 percent subrounded gravel, 5 percent subrounded cobbles; slightly acid (pH 6.5; pH meter 1:1 water); abrupt smooth boundary. (Combined thickness of the C layer is 25 to 94 cm.)
2C2-- 122 to 147 cm; olive (5Y 5/3) silt; friable; common very fine roots in cracks; common coarse faint olive (5Y 5/4) masses of iron accumulation; weak thin depositional plates, slightly acid (pH 6.2; pH meter 1:1 water); clear smooth boundary.
2C3-- 147 to 241 cm; pale olive (5Y 6/3) silt, olive yellow (2.5Y 6/6) very fine sand strata; friable; common very fine roots in cracks; common fine and coarse prominent strong brown (7.5YR 4/6) masses of iron accumulation; weak medium depositional plates; slightly acid (pH 6.2; pH meter 1:1 water).
TYPE LOCATION: Plymouth County, Massachusetts; town of Lakeville, 100 feet west of Bridge Street, 1526 feet southeast of the intersection of Route 105 and Bridge Street; USGS Assawompset Pond, MA topographic quadrangle, Latitude 41 degrees 52 minutes 19 seconds N., Longitude 70 degrees 55 minutes 17 seconds W., NAD 1983.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum ranges from 33 through 97 cm. The depth to the lithologic discontinuity or the lacustrine sediments ranges from 101 through 152 cm. Rock fragments are dominantly gravel and range from 0 through 30 percent by volume with up to 5 percent cobbles within the outwash or eolian component. The lacustrine sediments generally lack rock fragments. Depth to bedrock is more than 160 cm. Redoximorphic features, if present, are immediately above or within the 2C layer.
The Ap horizon has hue of 10YR, value of 3 or 4, and chroma of 2 or 3. Texture in the fine earth fraction is loamy sand, sandy loam, or fine sandy loam. It has weak or moderate granular structure, or is massive. Consistence is very friable or friable. Reaction ranges from slightly acid through strongly acid.
The Bw horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 4 through 6, and chroma of 3 through 6. Texture in the fine earth fraction is loamy coarse sand, loamy sand, or loamy fine sand. Structure is subangular blocky or the horizon is massive or single grain. Consistence is very friable, friable, or loose. Reaction ranges from strongly acid through neutral.
Some pedons have a BC horizon similar to the Bw horizon.
The C layer has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 5 or 6, and chroma of 3 or 4. Texture in the fine earth fraction is sand, coarse sand, or loamy sand. The horizon is single grain and consistence is loose. Reaction ranges from very strongly acid through slightly acid.
The 2C layer has hue of 10YR through 5Y, value of 4 through 6, and chroma of 2 through 6. Texture is silt, silt loam, or very fine sandy loam. Some pedons have sub layers of loamy very fine sand. Some pedons contain thin strata and lenses of fine sand, very fine sand, loamy fine sand, loamy very fine sand, and sand. The horizon has depositional plates or is massive. Consistence is very friable, friable, or firm. Reaction ranges from slightly acid through very strongly acid.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Acquango, Aldo, Bigapple, Biltmore, Boplain, Breeze (T), Caesar, Chute, Dabney, Hodge, North Shore (T), Oakville, Osolo, Pahuk, Penwood, Perks, Pinegrove, Plainfield, Poquonock, Ronda, Samoa, Sardak, Sarpy, Scotah, Spessard, Suncook, Tyner, and Windsor series. Acquango, Aldo, Caesar, Chute, Oakville, Osolo, Pahuk, Penwood, Plainfield, Samoa, and Tyner soils have C layers lacking loamy material; having sand content of 70 percent or more throughout. Bigapple and Breeze (T) soils formed in anthrotransported material, and have C layers lacking loamy material; having sand content of 70 percent or more throughout. Biltmore soils formed in alluvium and are subject to flooding. Boplain soils are moderately deep to a paralithic contact. Dabney, Hodge, Perks, Ronda, Sardak, Sarpy, Scotah, and Suncook soils formed in alluvium, are subjected to flooding unless protected, and have C layers lacking loamy material; having sand content of 70 percent or more throughout. The competing North Shore series name is reserved but the Official Series Description is not posted. Pinegrove soils lack a B horizon and have regolith fragments of sandstone from surface mine spoil. Poquonock soils have a densic contact within a depth of 50 through 96 cm. Spessard soils formed in colluvium, and have C layers lacking loamy material; having sand content of 70 percent or more throughout.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Wapanucket soils are nearly level through steep soils on glacial lake plains, terraces, and glaciofluvial landforms. Slope ranges from 0 through 25 percent. The steeper slopes are typically on terrace risers. The soils formed in eolian or outwash sands derived mainly from crystalline rocks underlain by loamy glaciolacustrine deposits. Mean annual temperature ranges from 6 through 12 degrees C., mean annual precipitation ranges from 965 through 1220 mm, and the growing season ranges from 120 through 190 days. Frost free days range from 145 through 240.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Birdsall, Carver, Deerfield, Eldridge, Enosburg, Hinesburg, Mashpee, Massasoit, Merrimac, Raynham, Scio, Squamscott, Wareham, and Windsor soils on nearby landscapes. The well drained Hinesburg, the moderately well drained Eldridge, the poorly drained Enosburg and Squamscott, and the very poorly drained Birdsall soils are common drainage associates. The Carver, Deerfield, Mashpee, Massasoit, Merrimac, Wareham, and Windsor soils are not underlain by loamy materials. Raynham and Scio soils contain less sand in the solum and formed in lacustrine deposits.
DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Somewhat excessively drained. Surface runoff is slow through medium. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is high or very high in the solum and upper substratum and moderately low or moderately high in the lower substratum.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are forested or in low growing brushy vegetation. Some areas are used for hay, and pasture, and corn and other row crops. Some areas are in community development. Forested areas are dominantly white, black, and northern red oak, eastern white pine, pitch pine, gray birch, poplar, red maple, and sugar maple.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southeastern Massachusetts. MLRA's 144A and 149B. The series is of moderate extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts.
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Plymouth County, Massachusetts, 2010.
REMARKS: 1. Wapanucket was the name of a local village inhabited by indigenous people. It is from this that the series name originates.
2. Wapanucket soils were formerly mapped as Windsor, silty substratum phases.
3. Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
a. Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 28 cm (Ap horizon).
b. Particle-size class - averages sandy in the control section from 25 to 100 cm.
4. Complete NSSL characterization data collected as S91MA023010.