LOCATION ZENAS IN

Established Series
Rev. DLM-GRS
11/2021

ZENAS SERIES

The Zenas series consists of deep, well drained soils on hills and sinkholes. They formed in 56 to 102 cm (22 to 40 inches) of loess and the underlying residuum from limestone. Slopes range from 2 to 12 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 1067 mm (42 inches) and mean annual temperature is about 13 degrees C (55 degrees F).

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, active, mesic Typic Hapludalfs

TYPICAL PEDON: Zenas silt loam on a 3 percent slope in a pasture. Elevation is 192 meters (630 feet) above mean sea level. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated.)

Ap--0 to 23 cm (0 to 9 inches); 90 percent brown (10YR 4/3), light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4) dry, and 10 percent strong brown (7.5YR 5/6), brown (7.5YR 5/4) dry, silt loam; weak fine and medium subangular blocky structure parting to moderate very fine subangular blocky; very friable; many very fine and fine and common medium roots throughout; neutral; clear smooth boundary. (15 to 28 cm [6 to 11 inches] thick)

Bt1--23 to 38 cm (9 to 15 inches); strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) silty clay loam; moderate very fine and fine subangular blocky structure; friable; many very fine and fine roots throughout; many distinct strong brown (7.5YR 4/6) clay films on faces of peds; 10 percent fine and medium cylindrical brown (10YR 4/3) worm casts; neutral; clear wavy boundary.

Bt2--38 to 66 cm (15 to 26 inches); strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) silty clay loam; moderate fine and medium subangular blocky structure; friable; many very fine and fine roots throughout; many distinct reddish brown (5YR 4/4) clay films on faces of peds; few fine prominent black (10YR 2/1) iron-mangangese concretions; 2 percent fine and medium cylindrical brown (10YR 5/3) worm casts; very strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bt horizon 30 to 86 cm [12 to 34 inches] thick)

2Bt3--66 to 81 cm (26 to 32 inches); yellowish red (5YR 4/6) silty clay; moderate fine and medium subangular blocky structure; firm; common very fine and fine roots throughout; many distinct reddish brown (5YR 4/4) clay films on faces of peds; few fine prominent black (10YR 2/1) mangans on faces of peds; few fine prominent black (10YR 2/1) iron-manganese concretions; very strongly acid; clear wavy boundary.

2Bt4--81 to 107 cm (32 to 42 inches); yellowish red (5YR 4/6) silty clay; moderate very fine and fine angular blocky structure; firm; common very fine and fine roots; many distinct reddish brown (5YR 4/4) clay films on faces of peds; few fine prominent black (10YR 2/1) iron-manganese concretions; 3 percent chert gravel; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary.

2Bt5--107 to 122 cm (42 to 48 inches); 60 percent dark reddish brown (5YR 3/2) clay and 40 percent brown (7.5YR 4/4) silty clay; weak fine and medium subangular blocky structure; firm; many distinct very dark gray (5YR 3/1) and dark reddish gray (5YR 4/2) clay films on faces of peds; 10 percent limestone channers; neutral; abrupt wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of the 2Bt horizon 46 to 97 cm [18 to 38 inches] thick)

2R--122 to 152 cm (48 to 60 inches); indurated limestone bedrock.

TYPE LOCATION: Jennings County, Indiana; about 1 miles southwest of Scipio; 1172 feet west and 202 feet north of the southeast corner of section 3, T. 7 N.; R. 7 E.; USGS North Vernon, Indiana topographic quadrangle; lat. 39 degrees 04 minutes 20.674 seconds N. and long. 085 degrees 43 minutes 41.677 seconds W; UTM Zone 16, 610013 easting and 4325576 northing, NAD 83.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:
Depth to the base of the argillic horizon: 102 to 152 cm (40 to 60 inches)
Depth to a lithic contact: 102 to 152 cm (40 to 60 inches)
Thickness of the loess: 56 to 102 cm (22 to 40 inches)

Ap horizon:
Hue: 7.5YR or 10YR
Value: 4 or 5
Chroma: 2 to 4
Texture: silt loam
Reaction: very strongly acid to neutral

Bt horizon:
Hue: 7.5YR or 10YR
Value: 4 or 5
Chroma: 4 to 6
Texture: silt loam or silty clay loam
Clay content: 22 to 38 percent
Sand content: 1 to 15 percent
Reaction: very strongly acid or strongly acid, and the upper part ranges to neutral in limed areas

2Bt horizon:
Hue: 5YR or 7.5YR
Value: 3 to 5
Chroma: 2 to 6
Texture: commonly clay, silty clay and less commonly silty clay loam and their gravelly or channery analogues
Clay content: 35 to 75 percent
Sand content: 1 to 15 percent
Reaction: very strongly acid or strongly acid, and the lower part ranges to neutral
Rock fragment content: 0 to 20 percent chert gravel and limestone channers

COMPETING SERIES: These are the Marseilles, Mentor, Pottersville, Sandview, Stubenville, and Westmore series. Marseilles soils have a paralithic contact above 102 cm (40 inches). Mentor, Pottersville, Sandview and Stubenville soils do not have a lithic contact within 152 cm (60 inches). Westmore soils have fragments of shale and sandstone lithology in the upper part of the solum.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Zenas soils are on gently sloping to moderately sloping hills and sinkholes of benched uplands. Slopes range from 2 to 12 percent. Many areas are undulating to rolling karst topography. The upper 56 to 102 cm (22 to 40 inches) of the solum formed in loess and the lower part formed in limestone residuum. The mean annual temperature ranges from 11 to 14 degrees C (51 to 57 degrees F), and the mean annual precipitation ranges from 1016 to 1168 mm (40 to 46 inches). Frost free period is 170 to 200 days. Elevation ranges from 107 to 240 meters (350 feet to 800 feet).

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Deputy, Muscatatuck, Ryker, Grayford, Caneyville, and Haggatt soils. The moderately well drained Deputy soils have the lower parts of their solums formed in black shale residuum. The well drained Ryker and Grayford and the moderately well drained Muscatatuck soils have the middle part of their subsoil formed in loamy glacial drift and are on higher lying summits, shoulders and backslopes of dissected till plains. The moderately deep, fine textured Caneyville and the deep, fine textured Haggatt soils are on lower lying backslopes.

DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Well drained. The potential for surface water runoff is low or moderate. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high or high (4.23 to 14.11 micrometers/s). Permeability is moderate.

USE AND VEGETATION: Nearly all of the soil is used for growing crops and pasture. The native vegetation is mixed hardwood forest.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: This soil is of small extent in MLRA 114A.

SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (SSRO) RESPONSIBLE: AMHERST, MASSACHUSETTS

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Jennings County, Indiana, 2010. The name is from a small community in Jennings County, Indiana.

REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons recognized in this pedon are:

Ochric epipedon - 0 to 23 cm (0 to 9 inches), (Ap horizon)
Argillic horizon - 23 to 122 cm (9 to 48 inches), (Bt1, Bt2, Bt3, 2Bt4, 2Bt5 horizons)
Lithic contact - at 122 cm (48 inches)

Series is correlated as Crider variant in the 1985 Soil Survey of Jefferson County, Indiana.
NSSL data: S02IN079-003 (typical pedon)
Data shows that this series near the break of fine-silty and fine PSC families.

The representative component and horizon data is in DMU# 468351.

National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.