LOCATION FEDSCREEK KYEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, semiactive, mesic Typic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Fedscreek channery loam on a 67 percent southwest facing slope under mixed hardwoods (white oak dominant) at 1,520 feet elevation. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated.)
0--1 to 0 inch; undecomposed hardwood leaf litter; very strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (0 to 3 inches thick)
A--0 to 4 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) channery loam; moderate medium granular structure; very friable; common medium roots; 15 percent sandstone fragments; very strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (1 to 7 inches thick)
BA--4 to 8 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) channery silt loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine and medium roots; 15 percent sandstone fragments; very strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (2 to 6 inches thick)
Bw1--8 to 16 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) channery loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine to coarse roots; 15 percent sandstone fragments; very strongly acid; gradual smooth boundary.
Bw2--16 to 30 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) channery loam; moderate medium angular blocky structure; friable; few fine to coarse roots; 20 percent sandstone fragments; very strongly acid; clear smooth boundary.
Bw3--30 to 40 inches; strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) channery loam; moderate medium angular blocky structure; firm; few fine to coarse roots; 25 percent sandstone fragments; very strongly acid; clear smooth boundary.
Bw4--40 to 48 inches; strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) channery loam; moderate medium angular blocky structure; firm; few fine and medium roots; few thin discontinuous strong brown (7.5YR 4/6) coatings on faces of peds; 25 percent sandstone fragments; very strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bw horizon is 37 to 50 inches.).
C1--48 to 60 inches; brown (7.5YR 5/4) very channery loam; massive; firm; few medium roots; very few thin discontinuous strong brown (7.5YR 4/6) coatings on fractured surfaces and rock fragments; 35 percent sandstone fragments; very strongly acid; clear smooth boundary.
C2--60 to 65 inches; dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/6) channery silt loam with few medium distinct light yellowish brown (2.5Y 6/4) lithochromic mottles; massive; firm; 30 percent sandstone fragments; very strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (0 to 20 inches thick or more)
R--65 inches; interbedded sandstone and siltstone.
TYPE LOCATION: Pike County, Kentucky; about 1 mile east of the confluence of Slones Fork and Morris Branch in the head of Raccoon Creek; about 7.2 miles south of the community of Zebulon; 37 degrees, 28 minutes, 38 seconds N. Latitude and 82 degrees, 23 minutes, 15 seconds W. Longitude; USGS Millard Quadrangle; NAD 1983.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of solum and depth to bedrock ranges from 40 to 72 inches. Rock fragments, mostly sandstone channers and flagstones, range from 5 to 60 percent in individual horizons, but average less than 35 percent in the particle-size control section. Reaction commonly ranges from very strongly to moderately acid throughout the profile, except for a few places where reaction ranges to slightly acid in the A horizon.
The A horizon has hue of 7.5YR to 2.5Y, value of 3 to 5 and chroma of 2 to 4. Fine-earth texture is sandy loam, loam, or silt loam. Structure is weak or moderate, fine or medium granular.
The B horizon has hue of 7.5YR to 2.5Y, value of 4 to 6 and chroma of 3 to 8. Fine-earth texture is sandy loam, loam or silt loam. Structure is weak or moderate fine through coarse subangular blocky or angular blocky. Some pedons have lithochromic mottles in shades of brown, yellow, or red and in the lower part shades of gray. Thin clay or silt coatings are not present in all pedons.
The C horizon has hue of 7.5YR to 2.5Y, value of 4 to 6 and chroma of 3 to 8. fine-earth texture is sandy loam, loam, clay loam, silt loam, or silty clay loam. Some pedons have lithochromic mottles in shades of brown, yellow, red, or gray. Thin clay or silt coatings are not present in all pedons. A thin Cr horizon is present in some pedons.
The R horizon is interbedded sandstone or siltstone and less commonly shale.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Bannertown, Cheshire, Devotion, Ditney, Marrowbone, Maymead, Mine Run (T) and Tipsaw series. The Bannertown, Devotion, Ditney, Marrowbone, Mine Run and Tipsaw series are moderately deep over bedrock. Bannertown soils are somewhat excessively drained and formed in residuum weathered form felsic metamorphic or igneous parent materials. Cheshire soils formed in supraglacial till on uplands. Devotion soils formed in residuum weathered from felsic to intermediate metamorphic or igneous rock with paralithic contact. Ditney soils formed in residuum affected by soil creep that weathered from metasedimentary rock such as arkose, metagraywacke, metasandstone or quartzite. Marrowbone soils formed in residuum weathered from interbedded sandstone and siltstone. Maymead soils formed in colluvium deposited by local alluvium and contain fragments of feldspathic quartzite, graywacke and arkosic sandstone. The tentative Mine Run Series is somewhat excessively drained and formed in residuum weathered from metamonzonite and gneiss. The Tipsaw series is exclusively over paralithic contact with moderately cemented sandstone interbedded with siltstone and shale.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Fedscreek soils are on hill slopes, mountain sides, benches, foot slopes and in drainage ways. They are most commonly on south and west facing slopes with warm aspect, but some areas are downslope from sandstone escarpments. Slopes are dominantly 25 to 75 percent, but range from 8 to 90 percent. These soils formed in loamy colluvium dominated by strongly acid through neutral Pennsylvanian aged sandstone, siltstone and shale. Elevation ranges from 600 to 4,000 feet and local relief differences ranges from 600 to 2,500 feet. Mean annual temperature ranges from 53 to 59 degrees F. and the mean annual precipitation ranges from 40 to 49 inches.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Berks, Dekalb, Gilpin, Handshoe, Jefferson, Kimper, Latham, Marrowbone, Muskingum, Pineville, Rayne, Sharondale and Shelocta series. Berks, Dekalb, Handshoe and Sharondale soils are loamy-skeletal; Gilpin, Jefferson, Kimper, Muskingum, Pineville, Rayne and Shelocta soils are fine-loamy; and Latham soils are fine. In addition, Gilpin, Jefferson, Latham, Pineville, Rayne and Shelocta soils have argillic horizons; Jefferson soils have mixed mineralogy; Kimper soils have dark surface layers; Sharondale soils have mollic surface layers; and Berks, Dekalb, Gilpin, Latham, Marrowbone and Muskingum soils are moderately deep to bedrock.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. Permeability is moderately rapid in the solum and moderate or moderately rapid in the substratum. Runoff is low in areas of less than 20 percent slope and medium above 20 percent.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are in secondary growth hardwood forest with mixed stands of white oak, American Beech, mockernut hickory, pignut hickory, black oak, sugar maple, sassafras, red maple, chestnut oak, Virginia pine, and flowering dogwood. Less sloping areas are used for pasture and as sites for houses or gardens.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Fedscreek soils are in the Allegheny-Cumberland Plateau of eastern Kentucky with possible similar areas in West Virginia, Virginia, and eastern Tennessee. The area is estimated to be of large extent, about 200,000 acres.
MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Lexington, Kentucky
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Pike County, Kentucky; 1985. Source of the name is a small community in Pike County.
REMARKS: Fedscreek soils were mostly mapped as Jefferson or Shelocta soils in the past.
Diagnostic horizons recognized in this pedon are:
Ochric epipedon - 0 to 4 inches (A).
Cambic horizon - 4 to 48 inches (BA, Bw).
ADDITIONAL DATA: Characterization sample S83KY-195-018 by NSSL. Supplement data for pedons S83KY-195-011 and reference samples S82KY-195-8, 9, 10, 11, 19, 20, 21, and 22.