LOCATION WERLOG NM+UTEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, active, calcareous, mesic Aquic Ustifluvents
TYPICAL PEDON: Werlog clay loam--abandoned cropland. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise stated.)
Ap--0 to 6 inches; grayish brown (10YR 5/2) clay loam, dark brown (10YR 3/3) moist; weak thin and medium platy and weak fine granular structure; slightly hard, friable, sticky and plastic; few fine and medium roots; many fine and few medium continuous pores; slightly effervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.0); clear smooth boundary. (2 to 14 inches thick)
C1--6 to 18 inches; light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) clay loam, dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) moist; weak medium prismatic structure parting to weak medium subangular blocky; hard, firm, sticky and plastic; many fine and medium roots; few fine and common medium continuous pores; slightly effervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.0); gradual smooth boundary. (9 to 24 inches thick)
C2--18 to 35 inches; grayish brown (10YR 5/2) clay loam; dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) moist; few fine distinct yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) redox concentrations and few fine faint dark gray (10YR 4/1) redox depletions; massive; hard, firm, sticky and plastic; many fine and medium roots; few fine and medium continuous pores; strongly effervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.2); gradual smooth boundary. (4 to 30 inches thick)
C3--35 to 49 inches; brown (10YR 5/3) silty clay loam, brown (10YR 4/3) moist; common fine distinct yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) redox concentrations and few fine distinct dark gray (10YR 4/1) redox depletions; massive; hard, friable, sticky and plastic; many fine and few medium roots; few fine and medium continuous pores; slightly effervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.2); clear smooth boundary. (0 to 36 inches thick)
C4--49 to 60 inches; brown (10YR 5/3) loam, dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) moist; common fine distinct yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) redox concentrations; massive; soft, very friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; many fine and few medium roots; few fine and medium continuous pores; slightly effervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.2); abrupt wavy boundary. (0 to 36 inches thick)
2C5--60 to 81 inches; stratified sand, pebbles, and cobbles.
TYPE LOCATION: San Juan County, New Mexico, near the intersection of San Juan Boulevard and Scott Avenue in Farmington; 1,150 feet west and 500 feet south of the northeast corner of sec. 15, T. 29 N., R. 13 W.; 108 degrees, 11 minutes, 18 seconds west longitude; 36 degrees, 43 minutes, 57 seconds north latitude.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:
Soil moisture - Typically, the soil moisture control section is intermittently moist in some or all parts less than 40 percent of the time. Moisture accumulates from snowfall in winter, capillary rise above the water table, and rainfall. It is usually dry in late May and June. Typic aridic moisture regime based on precipitation.
Depth to seasonal high water table - 2.0 to 3.5 feet; present between March and November
Soil temperature - 52 to 57 degrees F.
Depth to lithologic discontinuity of sandy material (2C horizon) - 60 inches or more
Depth to redox concentrations - 0 to 18 inches
Depth to redox depletions - 6 to 20 inches
Reaction - moderately to strongly alkaline
Organic matter - 0.5 to 1 percent in the surface horizon; decreases irregularly with depth; the lower C horizons contain less than 0.8 percent
A or Ap horizon - Value: 4 through 6 dry, 3 through 5 moist
Chroma: 2 or 3
Texture: loam, clay loam, or silty clay loam
Salinity, mmhos/cm: 2 to 50
Sodicity, SAR: 0 to 30
C horizons - Value: 5 or 6 dry, 3 through 5 moist
Chroma: 1 through 4
Texture: stratified fine sandy loam to silty clay loam (18 to 35 percent clay); thin strata ranging from sand to silty clay are present in some pedons
Salinity, mmhos/cm: 2 to 16
Sodicity, SAR: 0 to 30
Redoximorphic features: few to many, fine to medium, distinct or prominent, yellowish brown, strong brown, dark yellowish brown or reddish brown redox concentrations; at least few faint redox depletions typically occur between 6 and 20 inches in most pedons; strong gleying is present below 35 inches in some pedons
Other features: thin AC horizons are present above C horizons in some pedons.
2C horizon (where present) - Texture: stratified sand to cobbly sand Salinity, mmhos/cm: 2 to 4
COMPETING SERIES: There are no competing series.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Werlog soils are on flood plains and low stream terraces. They formed in alluvium derived from sandstone and shale. Slopes are 0 to 3 percent. Elevations are 4,600 to 6,000 feet. The climate is arid or semiarid continental. Average annual precipitation is 5 to 10 inches. Average annual temperature is 50 to 55 degrees F. The average frost-free season is 140 to 160 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Green River, Walrees, Werjo, and Youngston soils. Green River soils have less than 18 percent clay in the particle-size control section and lack aquic conditions within 20 inches of the soil surface. Walrees soils have a strongly contrasting particle-size class and lack aquic conditions within 20 inches of the surface. Werjo soils are moderately well drained and have aquic conditions deeper than 20 inches below the soil surface. Youngston soils are well drained and lack a seasonal high water table within 5 feet.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Somewhat poorly drained; slow runoff; moderately slow permeability. This soil has only a rare hazard of overbank flooding from adjacent streams due to water flow control by large upstream dams.
USE AND VEGETATION: Werlog soils are used for irrigated cropland and pasture, urban development, and livestock grazing. Present vegetation is inland saltgrass, alkali sacaton, kochia, Russian-olive, saltcedar, and Fremont cottonwood. Common crops are alfalfa, corn, and grasses and legumes for pasture.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: This series is of moderate extent in the San Juan and Chama River valleys in northwestern New Mexico. MLRAs 35 and 36.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Phoenix, Arizona
SERIES ESTABLISHED: San Juan County, New Mexico, Eastern Part, 1978.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
Entisol feature - the lack of diagnostic horizons due to young soil age.
Fluventic feature - alluvial stratification and an irregular organic carbon distribution.
Ustic soil moisture regime - the presence of sufficient soil moisture for the ustic regime due to capillary rise above the seasonal high water table.
Aquic subgroup - Aquic conditions of saturation, reduction, and redoximorphic features in at least one subhorizon within 20 inches of the soil surface due to the capillary rise above a seasonal high water table as shallow as 24 inches
Note:
1.) The Werlog series was mapped with a depth to water table of 2 to 5 feet in the soil survey of San Juan County, New Mexico, Eastern Part. This range is now narrowed to between 2.0 and 3.5 feet to better represent its drainage class of somewhat poorly drained. This soil may be moderately well drained where it occurs with a water table depth between 42 and 60 inches (3.5 to 5 ft.). These drier soils may not have enough natural soil moisture in the soil moisture control section during the warmer months of the year to qualify for the Ustic soil moisture regime. This phase would now be within the range of the proposed Werjo series.
2.) The Werlog soil as presently described is marginal in classification between an Aquic Ustifluvent and an Aeric Fluvaquent. The typifying pedon has a matrix chroma of 2 in the C1 horizon but this horizon lacks redox concentrations. Other pedons may have both of these morphologic features present in a layer between 15 and 20 inches (40 and 50 cm.). If aquic conditions occur within this layer depth accompanied by the above features then the soil would fit within the Aquents suborder. Near saturation conditions occur within the capillary fringe above the highest water table level at 24 inches. Water will not stand in an unlined auger hole above 24 inches, but the soil horizons between 12 and 24 inches may be very wet.
3.) An Aeric Fluvaquent would probably be poorly drained vs. somewhat poorly drained and would also be a Hydric soil. Mapping inclusions of such hydric soils do occur within slightly lower portions of delineations of the Werlog series.