LOCATION WETTERHORN              CO+WY

Established Series
Rev. AJC-JEB-KLS
09/2022

WETTERHORN SERIES

The Wetterhorn series consists of moderately deep, well drained soils that formed in medium to moderately fine textured noncalcareous sediments weathered from underlying bedrock on moderately to steeply sloping mountain sides and ridges. Slope ranges from 6 to 50 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 510 mm and mean annual air temperature is about 1 degree C.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, smectitic Typic Glossocryalfs

TYPICAL PEDON: Wetterhorn stony loam - forest. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise noted.)

Oi--0 to 5 cm; undecomposed organic material consisting mainly of needles, bark, twigs, and leaves.

Oe--5 to 8 cm; partially decomposed organic material like that of the horizon above.

E--8 to 38 cm; pinkish gray (7.5YR 6/2) loam, brown (7.5YR 4/2) moist; weak medium platy structure that parts to moderate fine granules; soft, very friable; vesicular; 25 percent stones; moderately acid (pH 6.0); gradual wavy boundary. (15 to 33 cm thick)

E/Bt--38 to 58 cm; mixed colors including pinkish gray (7.5YR 6/2) and brown (7.5YR 5/3) loam, brown (7.5YR 4/3) moist; weak medium subangular blocky structure; slightly hard, very friable; this horizon consists of clayey material like that of the underlying horizon embedded in a lighter colored matrix like that of the overlying horizons; few thin glossy patches on the more clayey peds; 25 percent stones; moderately acid (pH 6.0); gradual wavy boundary. (15 to 25 cm thick)

Bt--58 to 99 cm; brown (7.5YR 5/3) heavy clay loam, brown (7.5YR 4/3) moist; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; hard, friable; thin nearly continuous wax-like coatings on faces of peds; thin wax-like coatings and fillings in root channels; 30 percent stones; moderately acid (pH 6.0); clear smooth boundary. (20 to 43 cm thick)

R--99 cm; quartz latite bedrock.

TYPE LOCATION: Gunnison County, Colorado; in a road cut southwest of Powderhorn, Colorado; on the Indian Creek drainageway in Sec. 35, T. 46 N., R. 3 W.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:
Mean annual soil temperature--0 to 8 degrees C
Mean summer soil temperature--3 to 8 degrees C
Depth to bedrock and thickness of solum--50 to 100 cm
Cation exchange capacity to the base of the argillic horizon--60 to 100 millequivalents per 100 grams of clay
Rock fragment content--15 to 35 percent in a major portion of the solum
Reaction--pH 6.1 to 7.3

Some pedons can have an O horizon at least 10 cm thick if under a good crown cover.
Some pedons have thin dark colored A horizons.

E horizon
Hue--10YR or 7.5YR
Value--6 or 7 dry, 4 or 5 moist
Chroma--2 through 4
Structure--typically platy but may be subangular blocky or granular structure in some pedons
Reaction--pH 6.0 to 6.6

Bt horizon
Hue--10YR through 5YR
Value--5 or 6 dry, 4 or 5 moist
Chroma--2 through 4
Texture--heavy clay loam or light clay in the matrix
Clay content--35 to 50 percent
Sand content--15 to 45 percent
Reaction--pH 5.6 to 7.3
Clay films may be oriented in some part of this horizon.

COMPETING SERIES: These are the Azarman, Bead, Blackleaf, Chubbs, Cowdrey, Dell, Foxton, Gateway, Hatch, Lail, McVickers, Mikesell, Sielo, and Soldier series. Azarman, Bead, Blackleaf, Dell, Lail, Mikesell and Soldier soils lack a lithic contact at depths shallower than 100 cm. Bead, Lail, Foxton, McVickers and Soldier soils have lithochromic hue of 5YR or redder. Chubbs soils are calcareous above 100 cm, and have continuous horizons of secondary carbonate accumulation. Gateway, Hatch, Mikesell and Sielo soils have a paralithic contact at depths of less than 100 cm. Also, Gateway soils have less than 15 percent coarse fragments throughout the solum and have argillic horizons that contain less than 15 percent fine or coarser sand.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING:
Landform--moderately to steeply sloping mountain sides and ridges
Elevation--2300 meters or more
Slope--6 to 50 percent
Parent material--noncalcareous residuum
Mean annual precipitation--510 mm with peak periods of precipitation in the spring and early summer
Mean annual air temperature--1 degree C
Mean summer air temperature--9 degrees C

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: None listed

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained; medium to slow runoff; slow permeability

USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are used for forestry, as native pastureland, and for recreational purposes. Principal native vegetation is Englemann spruce, Douglas-fir, scattered aspen, and an understory of grasses and shrubs.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Wetterhorn soils are moderately extensive in the mountainous areas of Colorado and Wyoming; MLRAs 43B and 48A

SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (SSRO) RESPONSIBLE: Bozeman, Montana

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Johnson County (Southern Johnson County Area), Wyoming, 1971

REMARKS: Converted to metric, updated formatting, and O horizons were updated to start at zero. Competing series section was not updated. 9/2022

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National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.