LOCATION WEIKERT PA+IL IN KY MD OH VA WVEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, active, mesic Lithic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Weikert channery silt loam, in a cultivated field on 8 to 15 percent slopes. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise noted.)
Ap--0 to 7 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) channery silt loam; weak fine granular structure; friable, nonsticky and nonplastic; many fine and medium roots; 30 percent angular and subangular shale channers; strongly acid, clear smooth boundary. (5 to 9 inches thick)
Bw--7 to 14 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) very channery silt loam; weak fine subangular blocky structure; friable, nonsticky and nonplastic; common fine roots; 50 percent angular and subangular shale channers; strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (3 to 12 inches thick)
C--14 to 18 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) extremely channery silt loam; massive; friable; nonsticky and nonplastic; few fine roots; common distinct sily and clay deposits on channers; 70 percent angular and subangular shale channers; very strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (0 to 8 inches thick)
R--18 inches; dark gray (10YR 4/1) fractured acid shale and siltstone bedrock.
TYPE LOCATION: Franklin County, Pennsylvania; Hamilton Township, 3 miles west of Chambersburg, 2000 feet west of the intersection of Pennsylvania routes 4008 and 4010, 1000 feet south of route 4008; Chambersburg, PA topographic quadrangle; Latitude 39 degrees, 57 minutes, and 46 seconds N. and Longitude 77 degrees, 44 minutes, and 3 seconds W. NAD 27
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness ranges from 8 to 20 inches. Depth to bedrock ranges from 10 to 20 inches. Rock fragments range from 5 to 50 percent in the A or Ap horizon, from 35 to 60 percent in the Bw horizon, and from 60 to 85 percent in the C horizon. The sand fraction and rock fragments have a low content of feldspars, hydrobiotite, and chlorite. Unlimed reaction ranges from moderately acid to very strongly acid in the A or Ap horizon and moderately acid to extremely acid in the Bw and C horizons.
The A or Ap horizon has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 3 through 5, and chroma of 2 through 4. Texture is silt loam, or channery or very channery silt loam. Undisturbed pedons have a thin dark A horizon underlain by a 2 to 5 inch thick yellowish brown E horizon.
The Bw horizon has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 4 through 6, and chroma of 3 through 6. Texture is very channery silt loam or very channery loam. The fine-earth fraction has about 10 to 25 percent clay, 40 to 60 percent silt, and 20 to 40 percent sand. Structure of the Bw is weak or moderate, fine or medium subangular blocky. Moist consistence is friable or very friable, nonsticky or slightly sticky, and nonplastic or slightly plastic.
The C horizon has hue of 7.5YR, 10YR, or 2.5Y, value of 4 through 6, and chroma of 3 through 8. Texture is extremely channery silt loam or extremely channery loam with common interstitial pores. The fine-earth fraction is much like the horizon above but has massive or platy bedrock controlled structure.
Some pedons have a Cr horizon beginning at depths of less than 20 inches. Fractures are less than 4 inches apart but displacement of the pieces is rare. Some of the fragments are coated with silt films.
The R consists of shale, siltstone, fine-grained sandstone, or alternate beds of such material. The bedrock is sometimes fractured.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Arnot, Klinesville, Nassau, and Sylvatus series in the same family. Arnot and Nassau soils are formed in a thin mantle of glacial till or congeliturbate. Arnot and Nassau soils appear similar in the field but analytical data show 10 to 40 percent of the clay fraction of Weikert is kaolinite, whereas this mineral is lacking in the Arnot and Nassau soils. Sylvatus soils contain fragments of metasediments, primarily phyllite and slate. Klinesville soils have inherited hues redder than 7.5YR.
Bugley, Rohan, and Unicoi are a related family. They are all semiactive. In addition, Bugley soils have rock fragments of schist in the solum. Rohan soils have carbonaceous bedrock. Unicoi soils have a much higher content of feldspar, hydrobiotite, and chlorite in the sand fraction.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Weikert soils are on gently sloping to very steep convex dissected uplands formed in weathered residuum from interbedded gray and brown acid shale, siltstone, and fine-grained sandstone. Slope gradients range from 0 to 100 percent. The climate is humid and temperate with an mean annual precipitation of 36 to 50 inches, mean annual air temperatures of 46 to 57 degrees F., and a growing season of 120 to 200 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These include Allenwood, Bedington, Berks, Cavode, Ernest, Gilpin, Hartleton, Muskingum, Rayne, Westmoreland, and Wharton series. All these soils are deeper than 20 inches to bedrock. In addition, Allenwood, Bedington, Gilpin, Rayne, and Westmoreland soils have argillic horizons and are nonskeletal. The subsoils of Cavode, Ernest, and Wharton soils have low chroma redoximorphic features.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. The potential for surface runoff is neglegible to high. Permeability is moderately rapid to rapid.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most is cleared and used for cropland and pasture or is idle. Forested areas are mixed, deciduous hardwoods.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, Virginia, and Kentucky. The series is of large extent. MLRA's 120, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 140, 147, 148.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Union County, Pennsylvania, 1939.
REMARKS: In 1994 the Type Location was visited and redescribed as part of the MLRA 147 update in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland.
Some pedons sampled as Weikert have a CEC class of semiactive.
In some areas the Weikert series may include somewhat excessively drained soils.
Soils that are now within the range of the Weikert series were correlated as Montevallo (thermic) in several published soil surveys.
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
Ochric epipedon - from a depth of 0 to 7 inches (Ap horizon).
Cambic horizon - from a depth of 7 to 14 inches (Bw horizon).
Lithic contact at a depth of 18 inches (R horizon)
ADDITIONAL DATA: Lab samples number S93PA-055-039 and S93PA-055-040, taken from the same county as the type location, were used as the basis for placing this series into the active CEC activity class.