LOCATION WHITLEY KYEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, semiactive, mesic Typic Hapludults
TYPICAL PEDON: in an area of Whitley silt loam, 2 to 6 percent slopes--on a smooth and slightly concave 3 percent slope.
Ap--0 to 9 inches; dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) silt loam; weak fine granular structure; very friable; many fine roots; moderately acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (6 to 12 inches thick)
Bt1--9 to 18 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) silty clay loam; moderate fine and very fine subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine roots; few faint clay films on all surfaces of peds, lining pores and along root channels; 2 percent subrounded sandstone gravel; very strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (9 to 18 inches thick)
Bt2--18 to 36 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/8) silty clay loam; moderate fine and very fine subangular blocky structure; firm; few fine roots; few distinct clay films on all surfaces of peds, lining pores and along root channels; 3 percent subrounded sandstone gravel; very strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (8 to 24 inches thick)
2BC--36 to 50 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) gravelly silt loam; weak fine and very fine subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine roots; few faint clay films lining pores; 25 percent subangular sandstone gravel from 2 to 75mm across; very strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (0 to 16 inches thick)
2C--50 to 62 inches; variegated yellowish brown (10YR 5/6), pale brown (10YR 6/3), and light gray (10YR 7/1) gravelly silt loam; massive; friable; 17 percent subangular sandstone gravel from 2 to 75 mm across and a few sandstone cobbles as large as 150mm; very strongly acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Laurel County, Kentucky; on a narrow stream terrace 100 feet south west of the intersection of Kentucky Highway 578 and unimproved Bowling Road on the west side of Highway 578 along Terrell Creek; 258 feet south west of the Jackson-Laurel County Boundary and about 3.9 miles north east of the community of McWhorter; 37 degrees, 15 minutes, 1 second N. Latitude and 83 degrees, 56 minutes, 43 seconds W. Longitude; USGS Tyner Quadrangle; NAD 1983.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness ranges from 40 to 80 inches or more. Depth to rock is more than 60 inches. Sandstone and siltstone gravels and cobbles range from 0 to 6 percent in the upper part of the solum, 0 to 35 percent. in the lower part of the solum and from 0 to 50 percent in the substratum. Reaction ranges from strongly to very strongly acid, unless limed.
The Ap horizon has hue of 7.5YR to 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 2 to 4. It is silt loam or loam.
The Bt horizon has hue of 7.5YR to 2.5Y, value of 4 to 6 and chroma of 3 to 8. It is silt loam or silty clay loam in the upper part and silt loam, silty clay loam, loam, clay loam, or sandy clay loam in the lower part. Some pedons have redoximorphic features in shades of brown, yellow or gray below a depth of 40 inches. Some pedons have BA, BE, or 2Bt horizons with similar colors and textures.
The BC and C horizons have colors and textures similar to the lower part of the Bt horizon, but also include textures of sandy loam and fine sandy loam.
A lithologic discontinuity is present in many pedons along narrow streams but is not required.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Cabool(T), Chillum, Fletcher, Gnawbone, Jessietown, Matapeake, Nassawango and Wernock series in the same family and the Talleyville series which has not yet been assigned a CEC activity class. Cabool soils are moderately deep and formed in loess and the underlying residuum of sandstone and limestone bedrock. The Chillum, Matapeake and Nassawango soils have thinner solums and formed in silty eolian material underlain by coarse fluvial or loamy marine coastal plain sediments. Fletcher soils have redder Bt horizons and hard phyllite bedrock within a depth of 65 inches. Gnawbone and Wernock soils are moderately deep, formed in residuum weathered from siltstone and have paralithic contacts. Jessietown soils are moderately deep and formed in residuum weathered from acid black shale. Talleyville soils have sola 4 to 7 feet thick, with the upper part formed in a silty mantle and the lower part formed in residuum from basic igneous rocks.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Whitley soils are on stream terraces, foot slopes and alluvial fans with slope gradients of 0 to 12 percent. They formed in alluvium weathered from Pennsylvanian aged siltstone, sandstone and shale. Near the type location mean annual precipitation is about 48 inches and the average annual temperature is about 52 degrees F.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Allegheny, Cotaco, Cuba, Knowlton, Lindside, Morehead, Newark, Nolin and Stendal series. Allegheny and Cotaco soils are fine-loamy. Cotaco and Morehead soils are somewhat poorly or moderately well drained. Cuba, Lindside, Newark, Nolin and Stendal soils are on flood plains and lack argillic horizons.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained; runoff is low or medium and permeability is moderate.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are in cropland or pasture. Chief crops are corn, small grains, soybeans, hay, tobacco, and in a few areas truck and fruit crops. Forests are mixed hardwood, chiefly of oaks, hickories, dogwood, yellow poplar, elm, hop hornbeam, beech, and in places hemlock, Virginia, shortleaf and white pine.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Whitley County, Kentucky; 1967.
REMARKS: The 2005 revision assigns the activity class as semiactive; revises the type location and geographic settings; and narrows the range of landform locations. Traditionally, Whitley soils have been mapped on ridgetops over interbedded siltstone and sandstone. These areas have been largely re-mapped as the Lonewood or Rayne Series.