LOCATION WHIPPANY NJEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, mixed, active, mesic Aquic Hapludalfs
TYPICAL PEDON: Whippany silt loam cultivated, in an area of Whippany silt loam, 0 to 3 percent slopes at an elevation of about 260 feet. (Colors are for moist soil.)
Ap--0 to 9 inches; dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) heavy silt loam; moderate medium granular structure; very friable; many fibrous roots; nearly all grains stained; slightly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (6 to 10 inches thick)
Bt1--9 to 15 inches; strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) clay; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; firm, plastic, sticky; many fibrous roots; few patches of skeletons near top which diminish with increasing depth; few faint clay films on faces of peds; many coarse prominent light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) and pale brown (10YR 6/3) iron depletions; moderately acid; gradual wavy boundary. (0 to 7 inches thick)
Bt2--15 to 27 inches; strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) clay; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; firm, very plastic, sticky; common fibrous roots; few distinct clay films on faces of peds; vertically oriented pale colored streaks 6 to 24 inches apart; common coarse distinct dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) and light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) iron depletions; slightly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (5 to 20 inches thick)
Bt3--27 to 40 inches; brown (7.5YR 4/4) clay; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; firm, plastic, sticky; few distinct clay films on most faces of peds; widely spaced vertically oriented pale colored streaks; few coarse distinct light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) iron depletions; slightly acid; clear wavy boundary. (10 to 15 inches thick)
C--40 to 60 inches; reddish brown (5YR 4/4) silty clay loam; massive; friable; few coarse distinct pale brown (10YR 6/3) and pinkish gray (7.5YR 6/2) iron depletions; iron depletions are generally horizontally oriented and associated with stratification; neutral.
TYPE LOCATION: Morris County, New Jersey; Harding Township, 100 feet east of Pleasant Plains Road, 50 feet south of field boundary, 1/4 mile south of right
angle turn, Mills Bockhoven farm. USGS Bernardsville topographic quadrangle; latitude 40 degrees 42 minutes 38 seconds N. and longitude 74 degrees 30 minutes 17 seconds W., NAD 27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness ranges from 30 to 50 inches. Depth to bedrock is more than 5 feet. Coarse fragments are commonly lacking
but range up to 5 percent above 40 inches and up to 30 percent below. Base saturation 50 inches below the top of the argillic horizon, ranges from 60 to 90
percent. Unless limed, reaction ranges from strongly acid to moderately acid near the surface and increases with depth to slightly acid through slightly alkaline in the C horizon.
The A horizon has hue of 7.5YR to 2.5Y, value of 2 to 4, and chroma of 2. Values of 3 are restricted to A1 horizons which are less than 6 inches thick. Texture ranges from silty clay loam to loam. Some pedons have a BE or E horizon with hue of 5YR or 10YR, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 2 to 4 with similar textures to the A horizon.
The Bt or Btg horizon has hue of 5YR to 10YR, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 4 or 6. Low and high chroma redoximorphic features are strongest on faces of peds and interiors within the top 10 inches of the argillic horizon and diminishes with increasing depth. Individual subhorizon textures range from silty clay loam to clay with the weighted percent clay for the Bt horizon more than 35 percent.
The C horizon has hue of 5YR to 7.5YR, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 3 or 4. Textures are stratified loam, silt loam, clay loam or silty clay loam above 40 inches and range to loamy sand or gravelly loamy sand below 40 inches.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Banister, Branchville, Cardinal, Celina, Eudy, Hartville, Jerktail, Loudon, and Tarlton soils. Banister, Branchville, Celina, Eudy, Hartville, Jerktail, Loudon, and Tarlton soils are from outside LRR R.
Banister and Hartville soils have mean annual soil temperatures greater than 55 degrees. Branchville soils have an argillic horizon deeper than 50 inches. Cardinal and Loudon soils effervesce in the subsoil and substratum. Celina soils are 20 to 40 inches to a densic contact. Eudy and Tarlton soils are 20 to 40 inches to bedrock. Jerktail soils are 60 to 80 inches to bedrock.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Whippany soils are on slight elevations on terraces or gently sloping peripheral areas within large topographic basins. These soils
formed in silty and clayey sediments containing a high proportion of fines derived from weathered shale, basalt and granite materials. Slope is 0 to 8 percent. The climate is humid temperate. Average annual precipitation is 40 to 48 inches and the growing season is about 140 to 170 days. Mean annual temperature ranges from 45 to 55 degrees F.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Parsippany, Croton, Readington and Riverhead soils on nearby landscapes. Croton and Readington soils are silty and have fragipans. Riverhead soils are gravelly sandy loam through the solum and are well drained.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Whippany soils are somewhat poorly drained. Runoff is negligible to very high. Permeability is slow. Saturated hydraulic conductivity ranges from moderately low or moderately high. The water table is at or near the surface briefly during late winter and early spring and drops to a depth of at least 4 feet in the summer.
USE AND VEGETATION: Natural vegetation is maple, sweet gum, pin oak, elm and swamp white oak. Where cleared, these soils have been extensively used
for hay and pasture and in areas with improved drainage, corn, soybeans and other cultivated crops are grown.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Low-lying areas in northeast New Jersey. Whippany soils are of small extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Bernardsville Area, New Jersey, published in 1919.
REMARKS: The Whippany series was redefined in the Morris-Warren SCD, New Jersey in 1941. Cation exchange activity class assigned based upon a review of limited data for similar soils. Geographic coordinates determined from narrative description in published soil survey and should be considered approximate.
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon include:
1) Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 9 inches (Ap horizon)
2) Argillic horizon - the zone from 9 to 40 inches averages more than 35 percent clay (Bt1, Bt2, Bt3 horizons)
3) Aquic subgroup - has depletions with chroma of 2 or less in the upper 10 inches of the argillic horizon in the zone of 15 to 27 inches (Bt2 horizon)