LOCATION KEENE OHEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, superactive, mesic Aquic Hapludalfs
TYPICAL PEDON: Keene silt loam, on a south-facing, convex, 6 percent slope in a cultivated field. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated.)
Ap--0 to 9 inches; dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) silt loam, light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) dry; weak fine subangular blocky structure; friable; many roots; 2 percent shale fragments; moderately acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (4 to 10 inches thick)
E--9 to 12 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) silt loam; weak fine and medium subangular blocky structure; friable; many roots; many pores; very strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (0 to 7 inches thick)
Bt1--12 to 15 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) silt loam; weak fine and medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common roots; many small pores in interior peds; few faint yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) clay films on faces of peds; very strongly acid; clear smooth boundary.
Bt2--15 to 20 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) silty clay loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common roots; common distinct dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) clay films on faces of peds; very strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bt horizons is 4 to 22 inches.)
2Bt3--20 to 25 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) silty clay loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common roots; common distinct dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) clay films on faces of peds; many medium prominent light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) and many medium distinct pale brown (10YR 6/3) redoximorphic features; 5 percent shale fragments; very strongly acid; clear smooth boundary.
2Bt4--25 to 39 inches; mixed yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) and gray (5Y 6/1) silty clay loam; moderate medium prismatic structure parting to moderate medium angular blocky; firm; few roots; common distinct pale brown (10YR 6/3) clay films on faces of peds; common fine distinct light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) iron depletions and many medium prominent strong brown (7.5YR 5/8) masses of iron accumulation; 10 percent shale fragments less than 6 inches in length; very strongly acid; gradual smooth boundary. (Combined thickness of the 2Bt horizons is 10 to 30 inches.)
2BC--39 to 52 inches; gray (10YR 6/1) channery silty clay loam; weak medium angular and subangular blocky structure; very firm; few faint pale brown (10YR 6/3)clay films on vertical faces of peds; few fine prominent strong brown (7.5YR 5/8) masses of iron accumulation; 25 percent shale fragments less than 6 inches in length; very strongly acid; gradual smooth boundary. (0 to 16 inches thick)
2Cr--52 to 72 inches; gray (10YR 5/1) and yellowish brown (10YR 5/8) weathered shale.
TYPE LOCATION: Coshocton County, Ohio; about 3 1/2 miles northwest of Fresno in Crawford Township, North Appalachian Experimental Watershed, Agricultural Research Service; 50 feet south of farm lane and 70 feet west of lysimeter battery; about 330 feet west and 150 feet north of the southeast corner, sec. 25, T. 7 N., R. 5 W.; USGS Coshocton, Ohio topographic quadrangle; Latitude 40 degrees 22 minutes 25 seconds N. and Longitude 81 degees 47 minutes 24 seconds W., NAD 1927.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum ranges from 30 to 60 inches. Depth to weathered bedrock is 40 to 84 inches. The volume of rock fragments, mainly small shale and siltstone fragments, ranges from 0 to 5 percent in the A and Bt horizons, 5 to 15 percent in the 2Bt horizon, and 5 to 35 percent in the 2BC and 2C horizons. The particle size control section averages 28 to 35 percent clay.
The Ap horizon has hue of 10YR, value of 4 or 5 and 6 or 7 dry, and chroma of 2 or 3. Some pedons have an A horizon, 1 to 4 inches thick, that has hue of 10YR, value of 2 or 3 and 4 or 5 dry, and chroma of 1 or 2. It is very strongly acid to neutral.
The E horizon has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 4 to 6 and 6 to 8 dry, and chroma of 2 to 4. It is very strongly acid to neutral.
A BA horizon or BE horizon occurs in some pedons.
The Bt horizon has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 4 to 6; redoximorphic features with chroma of 1 to 6 are in the lower part of the horizon in many pedons. It is silt loam or silty clay loam. It is very strongly acid or strongly acid.
The 2Bt horizon has hue of 7.5YR, 10YR, 2.5Y, or 5Y, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 1 to 6; redoximorphic features with chroma of 1 to 6 are throughout. It is silty clay, silty clay loam or clay loam. It is very strongly acid or strongly acid.
The 2BC horizon and the 2C horizons, where present, have hue of 10YR, 2.5Y,or 5Y, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 1 to 4. They are silty clay loam, clay loam, silty clay, or clay; or their channery analogues. Reaction is very strongly acid to slightly acid.
Bedrock commonly is soft weathered shale, siltstone, or coal underclay, but thinly bedded or fractured siltstone is in some pedons.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Appleriver, Blair, Bunkum, Fishhook, Freeburg, Geff, Glenford, Muren, Reesville, Sugarvalley (T), Torox, and Xenia series. Appleriver soils are somewhat poorly drained and the pH of the lower part of the series control section is alkaline and reacts to acid with effervesence. Blair, Bunkum, Freeburg and Muren soils lack rock fragments in the lower part of the series control section. Fishhook soils formed in material weathered from glacial till and contain gravel in the lower one-half of the control section. Geff soils average less than 5 percent rock fragments of shale in the lower part of the series control section. Glenford soils have stratification within the series control section. Reesville soils have limestone and crystalline rock fragments in the 2C horizon. Sugarvalley (T) soils have carbonates at a depth of 40 to 60 inches. Torox soils have rock fragments that are primarily igneous and limestone. Xenia soils are slightly alkaline or moderately alkaline in the 2BC and 2Cd horizons.
Series that were formerly in the same family, but have not been updated to the 8th Edition of the Keys to Soil Taxonomy include Lykens and Travilah. Lykens soils have evidence of stratification in the series control section and have C horizons in till that have free carbonates.Lykens soils have more than 10 percent clay in the lower part of the series control section. Travilah soils have a lithic contact within a depth of 40 inches consisting of serpentine.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Keene soils occur on hills, ridgetops and benches of unglaciated disected uplands in the western and central Allegheny Plateau. They occupy interfluve, side slope, head slope, nose slope and base slope landscape positions. Slopes range from 1 to 25 percent. The soils formed in silty materials up to 36 inches thick, over residuum weathered mainly from interbedded siltstone, shale, and coal underclay, or in places thin strata of limestone. Mean annual precipitation ranges from about 36 to 42 inches, and mean annual temperature ranges from about 50 to 54 degrees F.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Brownsville, Coshocton, Dekalb, Gilpin, Guernsey, Rayne, and Westmoreland soils. The well drained Brownsville and Dekalb soils are loamy-skeletal and are on upper shoulders and back slopes. The Coshocton and Guernsey soils are on similar landscape positions. The well drained Gilpin, Rayne, and Westmoreland soils have lower base saturation and are on summits and backslopes.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Moderately well drained. The potential for surface runoff is medium to high. The depth to the top of an intermittent perched seasonal high water table is 1.0 to 2.0 feet in normal years. Permeability is moderate or moderately slow in the upper silty material and moderately slow or slow in the lower material.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are cropped. Corn, mixed hay, and wheat are the principal crops. More sloping areas are in forage for hay or pasture, or in woodland. Native vegetation was deciduous hardwood forest.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Eastern Ohio. MLRA 124 and 126. The series is of moderate extent, about 28,000 acres.
MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Little Mill Creek Watershed, Coshocton County, Ohio,
1938.
REMARKS: The 4/98 revison included numerous changes made to all parts of OSD. Pedon description was updated to current redoximorphic feature terminology.
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
ochric epipedon - from the surface to a depth of 12 inches (Ap and E horizons)
argillic horizon - the zone from a depth of 12 to 39 inches (Bt1, Bt2, 2Bt3, and 2Bt4 horizons)
redoximorphic features at 20 to 52 inches
paralithic contact at 52 inches (2Cr horizon)
ADDITIONAL DATA: Refer to sample pedons CS-11 (OSD type location), MS-25 and TU-11, analyzed by the Ohio State University Soil Characterization Laboratory, Columbus, Ohio.
Revised 3/89-AR,LAT; 04/2000-AR,LAT,LER; 02/2005-DHK