LOCATION WESTMORE OH+ILEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, active, mesic Typic Hapludalfs
TYPICAL PEDON: Westmore silt loam - pasture. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated.)
Ap--0 to 6 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) silt loam, pale brown (10YR 6/3) dry; weak fine granular and weak medium platy structure; friable; many fine roots; 5 percent small sandstone fragments; strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (4 to 8 inches thick)
Bt1--6 to 9 inches; dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) silt loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; firm; common fine roots; few faint dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) clay films on vertical faces of peds; 3 percent small sandstone fragments; medium acid; clear smooth boundary.
Bt2--9 to 23 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) silty clay loam; moderate fine and medium angular blocky structure; firm; common fine roots; common distinct dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) clay films on vertical faces of peds and in root channels and pores; 3 percent small sandstone fragments; medium acid; gradual smooth boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bt horizons is 12 to 28 inches.)
2Bt3--23 to 44 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) channery silty clay loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; firm; few fine roots; common faint yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) clay films on vertical faces of peds and in pores; 15 percent small sandstone and shale fragments; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (8 to 24 inches thick)
2BC--44 to 51 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) silty clay loam; weak coarse subangular blocky structure; firm; common faint dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) clay films on vertical faces of peds and in pores; 5 percent small sandstone and shale fragments; many fine black (10YR 2/1) concretions (iron and manganese oxides); medium acid; clear smooth boundary. (0 to 15 inches thick)
2C1--51 to 54 inches; grayish brown (10YR 5/2) clay; common fine distinct yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) and reddish gray (5YR 5/2) mottles; massive; 10 percent small shale fragments; medium acid; clear smooth boundary. (0 to 15 inches thick)
2C2--54 to 68 inches; three layers 3 to 7 inches thick; upper layer is variegated dusky red (10R 3/2), dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4), yellowish brown (10YR 5/6), and dark gray (N 4/0) clay; middle layer is mixed light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) and dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) clay; lower layer is dusky red (10R 3/2) clay; massive; very firm; 10 percent coarse fragments; slightly acid at top, slight effervescence and mildly alkaline at the base.
2R--68 inches; hard limestone bedrock.
TYPE LOCATION: Monroe County, Ohio; Seneca Township; 300 feet south of Township Road 23; 1/2 mile west of junction of Ohio Route 379 and Township Road 23, 1950 feet west and 1850 feet south of the northeast corner of sec. 23, T. 7 N., R. 7 W.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The thickness of the solum ranges from 40 to 72 inches. Depth to bedrock is more than 4 feet. The thickness of the silty mantle is 20 to 36 inches. The particle size control section is 25 to 35 percent clay and 2 to 15 percent sand coarser than very fine sand plus coarse fragments. The volume of coarse fragments ranges from 0 to 5 percent in the A and Bt horizons and 5 to 25 percent in the 2Bt, 2BC, and 2C horizons. Thin flat shale and sandstone fragments up to 3 inches across the long axis are the dominant coarse fragments, but siltstone and limestone fragments up to 10 inches in diameter or 15 inches in length are in some pedons. These make up 0 to 15 percent of the 2Bt, 2BC, and 2C horizons.
The Ap horizon has hue of 10YR, value of 4 or 5 (6 or 7 dry), and chroma of 2 to 4. Some pedons have an A horizon, 1 to 5 inches thick, that have hue of 10YR, value of 2 to 4 (4 to 6 dry), and chroma of 1 to 3. The A horizon is silt loam but the Ap ranges to silty clay loam in severely eroded pedons. The Ap or A is commonly medium acid or strongly acid but the Ap horizon ranges to neutral. Some pedons have an E horizon up to 9 inches thick that has hue of 10YR or 7.5YR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 2 to 4. It is silt loam.
The Bt horizon has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 3 to 6. It is silt loam or silty clay loam. It is medium acid to very strongly acid.
The 2Bt and 2BC horizons have hue of 7.5YR, 10YR, or 2.5Y; value of 4 to 6; and chroma of 3 to 6. They are silty clay, clay, silty clay loam, or clay loam, or their channery analogues. They typically contain 35 to 60 percent clay but individual subhorizons of the 2Bt contain up to 65 percent clay. The upper part of the 2Bt is strongly acid to neutral and the lower part of the 2Bt and 2BC are medium acid to neutral.
The 2C horizon has hue of 10R to 5Y, or is neutral; value of 3 to 6; chroma of 0 to 6; and is typically variegated or mottled. It commonly is clay or silty clay and less commonly sandy clay, clay loam, silty clay loam, or their channery analogues. It contains 35 to 60 percent clay. It is medium acid to mildly alkaline.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Alford, Baraboo, Bertrand, Birkbeck, Blackhammer, Cadiz, Camden, Dodge, Dubuque, Elco, Eleroy, Fayette, Flagg, Grayford, Hackers, Inton, Iona, Jackson, Knowles, LaFarge, Lomira, Marseilles, Martinsburg, Mayville, Menfro, Mentor, Middletown, Minnith, Palsgrove, Rozetta, Rush, Russell, St. Charles, Seaton, Sylvan, Uniontown, Weingarten, Winfield, and Zurich series in the same family and the Edom, Guernsey, Loudon, Rosine, and Westmoreland series. Alford, Bertrand, Birkbeck, Blackhammer, Camden, Fayette, Hackers, Inton, Iona, Jackson, Martinsburg, Menfro, Mentor, Middletown, Minnith, Rozetta, Rush, St. Charles, Seaton, and Winfield soils have less than 35 percent clay in the lower part of the solum. Baraboo, Dubuque, and Knowles soils have a lithic contact at depths of less than 40 inches from the soil surface. Cadiz, Dodge, Elco, Mayville, and Russell soils have 2Bt horizons formed in till which has rock fragments of mixed lithology. Eleroy soils have less than 5 percent coarse fragments in the 2Bt horizon. Flagg soils have sola thicker than 60 inches. LaFarge, Lomira, Marseilles, Sylvan, and Uniontown soils have sola less than 40 inches thick. Palsgrove soils have residuum weathered from bedrock at depths greater than 36 inches. Zurich soils have carbonates within a depth of 40 inches. Edom, Guernsey, and Loudon soils average more than 35 percent clay in the particle size control section. Rosine soils have base saturation between 35 and 60 percent. Westmoreland soils are fine- loamy.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Westmore soils occur principally on ridgetops, upper hillsides, and benches with dominant slopes of 12 to 35 percent but ranging from 1 to about 70 percent. The soils formed in a silty mantle 20 to 36 inches thick and in residuum weathered from interbedded sedimentary rocks, including siltstone, shale, sandstone, and limestone. In most pedons, there is evidence of solifluction in the orientation of coarse fragments or mixing of materials weathered from different kinds of bedrock. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 35 to 45 inches, and mean annual temperature ranges from 50 to 56 degrees F.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the competing Guernsey and Westmoreland soils and the Brooke, Brookside, Gilpin, Lowell, Sees, Wellston, and Woolper soils. Guernsey soils occupy similar landscape positions as Westmore soils but are moderately well drained and have a thinner mantle of silt. Westmoreland soils are on ridgetops and hillsides and are fine-loamy. Brooke, Lowell, and Wellston soils are on ridgetops or upper hillsides. Brooke and Lowell soils are fine, and Wellston soils have base saturation between 35 and 60 percent. Gilpin soils occupy similar positions, have base saturation of less than 35 percent and are fine-loamy. The moderately well drained Brookside, somewhat poorly drained Sees, and well drained Woolper soils formed in clayey colluvium on footslopes.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. Surface runoff is rapid. Permeability is moderate in the silty material and moderately slow or slow in the underlying material.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most of these soils are cultivated or used for pasture. Principal crops are meadow, corn, wheat, or other cultivated crops. Some areas are forested. Native vegetation was mixed hardwoods with oak, tulip poplar, beech, maple, and hickory as the most common species. Some areas of former cropland or pasture areas are reverting to woodland.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Allegheny Plateau in southeast Ohio and in Illinois, and possibly nearby areas of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky. The soils are moderately extensive, about 30,000 acres.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Monroe County, Ohio, 1970.
REMARKS: Until 1965, Westmore soils had been considered a part of the Westmoreland series in Ohio.
Diagnostic horizons and features recongized in this pedon are: ochric epipedon - from the surface to a depth of about 6 inches (Ap horizons); argillic horizon - the zone from a depth of about 6 inches to a depth of about 51 inches (Bt1-2Bc horizons).