LOCATION WHETSTONE OREstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, isotic, ortstein Typic Haplocryods
TYPICAL PEDON: Whetstone stony loam, woodland. (colors are for moist soil unless otherwise noted.)
O1--4 inches to 2; undecomposed limbs, twigs, leaves, needles and grass.
O2--2 inches to 0; partially decomposed plant and animal matter.
E--0 to 1 inch; dark gray (5YR 4/1) stony sandy loam, gray (5YR 5/1) dry; single grained; loose, very friable, nonsticky, nonplastic; many very fine irregular pores; many roots; extremely acid (pH 4.0); abrupt wavy boundary. (1/2 to 1 1/2 inches thick)
Bs1--1 to 5 inches; dark reddish brown (5YR 3/3) stony loam, reddish brown (5YR 4/4) dry; massive; weakly cemented; hard, firm, slightly sticky, nonplastic common fine and very fine pores; common roots; 20 percent cobbles, stones, and gravel; dark iron coating on incipient ped faces; organic stains (2.5YR 2/4); extremely acid (pH 4.2); abrupt wavy boundary. (3 to 8 inches thick)
Bs2--5 to 19 inches; dark brown (7.5YR 3/2) stony loam, brown (7.5YR 5/4) dry; massive; hard, friable, slightly sticky, nonplastic; common roots; common very fine and fine pores; 0 percent cobbles and stones and 10 percent gravel; bands of iron accumulation 1 to 2 inches thick along planes of weakness or incipient ped faces; many dark reddish brown firm nodules 5 mm to 25 mm; very strongly acid (pH 4.6); clear wavy boundary. (12 to 16 inches thick)
C--19 to 38 inches; dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) very stony loam, brown (10YR 5/3) dry; massive; slightly hard, friable, slighty sticky, nonplastic; few roots; common fine and very fine pores; 25 percent cobbles and stones and 15 percent gravel; very strongly acid (pH 4.6); abrupt wavy boundary. (5 to 20 inches thick)
2R--38 inches; basalt bedrock.
TYPE LOCATION: Marion County, Oregon; at junction of roads, 50 feet north of steel gate in NE1/4 NE1/4 section 9, T. 8 S., R. 3 E.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The mean annual soil temperature ranges from 43 to 47 degrees F. and the mean summer soil temperature is less than 47 degrees F.
i. pedons with an O horizon. The soils are usually moist and have a udic moisture regime. Depth to bedrock ranges from 20 to 40 inches. The amount of rock fragments in the B horizon ranges from 20 to 50 percent. The cobbles and stones ranges from 10 to 35 percent and gravel from 10 to 30 percent. The control section of 10 inches to bedrock averages 35 to 60 percent rock fragments. The A and B horizons are very strongly or extremely acid and the C horizon is strongly or very strongly acid.
The E horizon has value of 4 or 5 moist, 5 or 6 dry, and chroma of 1 or 2 moist and dry.
The B horizon has hue of 7.5YR or 5YR, value of 4 or 5 dry, and chroma of 2 through 4 moist and 3 or 4 dry. It is gravelly or cobbly loam with less than 18 percent clay and greater than 15 percent coarser than very fine sand. This horizon is 15 to 24 inches thick. The upper part of the B horizon is massive and weakly or strongly cemented and the lower part weakly cemented or noncemented and friable or firm.
The C horizon has hue of 10YR or 7.5YR, value of 3 or 4 moist, 5 or 6 dry, and chroma of 3 or 4 moist and dry. It is massive or single grained.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Barlow, Dinzer, Homestead, Lastance, Mt. Hood, Naptowne, Tenex, and Timberly series. The spodic horizons of all of these soils lack cementation in any part. Barlow, Naptowne, and Timberly soils have less than 35 percent rock fragments in the control section.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Whetstone soils have mountainous topography with slopes ranging from 3 to 75 percent and are at elevations of 3,000 to 5,000 feet. The soils formed in medium textured colluvium and till of basic igneous origin. The climate is humid temperate with a mean annual precipitation of 70 to 90 inches much of which falls as snow during the winter months. The mean annual temperature is 41 to 45 degrees F., the mean January temperature is 31 degrees F., and the mean July temperature is 55 degrees F. The frost-free season is 90 to 110 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Henline soils. Henline soils lack spodic horizons.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well-drained; medium to very rapid runoff; moderate permeability.
USE AND VEGETATION: Woodland. Vegetation is mainly noble fir, silver fir, hemlock, Douglas-fir, huckleberry, rhododendron, beargrass, and ferns.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Western footslopes of Cascade Mountains in the Willamette Valley, Oregon. The series is inextensive.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Portland, Oregon
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Marion County, Oregon, 1973.
NSTH 17, RECLASSIFICATION ONLY, 3/95