LOCATION LOWELL KY+MO OH PA VAEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, mixed, active, mesic Typic Hapludalfs
TYPICAL PEDON: Lowell silt loam--on a smooth 8 percent slope in pasture. (Colors are for moist soil.)
Ap--0 to 11 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) silt loam; moderate fine and medium granular structure; very friable; many fine roots; ped surfaces slightly darker than interiors; slightly acid; clear smooth boundary. (6 to 12 inches thick)
Bt1--11 to 16 inches; strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) silty clay; weak medium subangular blocky structure; firm; common fine roots; common distinct clay films on faces of peds; few small black concretions; brown (10YR 4/3) silt loam in some root channels and surrounding some peds in the upper half; slightly acid; clear smooth boundary. (0 to 8 inches thick)
Bt2--16 to 23 inches; strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) clay; moderate fine and medium angular blocky structure; very firm; few fine roots; few fine pores; many distinct clay films on faces of peds; few small black concretions; few very small chert flecks; medium acid; gradual smooth boundary. (5 to 20 inches thick)
Bt3--23 to 41 inches; strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) clay; many fine faint brown (10YR 5/3) and yellowish red (5YR 4/6) and common medium distinct light brownish gray (10YR 6/2)
lithochromic mottles; moderate medium angular blocky structure parting to fine and very fine angular blocky structure; very firm; few fine roots; few very small pores; many distinct clay films on faces of peds; few small yellowish chert flecks; 5 percent fragments of limestone up to 2 inches across in lower part; few small black concretions; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (15 to 40 inches thick)
BC--41 to 53 inches; mottled yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) and light gray (10YR 6/2) clay; weak fine and very fine angular blocky structure; very firm; few fine roots; many soft black
accumulations; 5 percent fragments of limestone up to 6 inches across; few small yellowish chert flecks; slightly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (0 to 20 inches thick)
R--53 inches; hard light gray limestone.
TYPE LOCATION: Jessamine County, Kentucky; about 3 1/2 miles west of Nicholasville, 100 feet south of farm lane, 3/4 mile west of U. S. 68, and 1/2 mile north of intersection of U. S. 68 and KY 169.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The thickness of the solum ranges from 30 to 60 inches. Depth to limestone or interbedded limestone, shale and siltstone bedrock ranges from 40 to 80
inches or more. The soil to a depth of about 30 inches, ranges from very strongly acid to slightly acid, and below 30 inches from strongly acid to mildly alkaline except the layer immediately above the bedrock ranges from medium acid to mildly alkaline. Content of fragments of limestone or
siltstone range from 0 to 5 percent in the upper part of the solum, from 0 to 15 percent in the lower part and 1 to 50 percent in the C horizon.
The Ap horizon has hue of 10YR or 7.5YR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 2 to 4. Texture is silt loam or silty clay loam. Some pedons have coatings of peds in the A horizons less than 6 inches thick that are very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2).
An AB or BA horizon, when present, has hue of 10YR or 7.5YR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 2 to 4. Texture is silt loam or silty clay loam.
The Bt horizon has hue of 10YR or 7.5YR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 3 to 6 in the upper portion. Texture is silt loam, silty clay loam, or silty clay. The lower Bt has hue of 2.5Y, 10YR, or 7.5YR, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 4
to 8 with lithochromic mottles in shades of brown, red, olive, or gray. Texture of the lower Bt is silty clay or clay.
The BC horizon, has hue of 2.5Y, 10YR, or 7.5YR, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 4 to 8, with lithochromic mottles in shades of brown, olive, or gray. Texture is dominantly silty clay or clay, but also includes silty clay loam.
The C horizon, when present, has hue of 2.5Y, 10YR, or 7.5YR, value of 4 to 6 and chroma of 4 to 8 with lithochromic mottles in shades of brown, olive or gray or is a variegation of these colors. Texture ranges from silt loam to clay.
The Cr horizon, when present is 5 to 20 inches thick, and has soft interbedded shale, siltstone and limestone. Below this is hard light gray limestone.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the
Bledsoe,
Bonnell,
Bucklick,
Caneyville,
Chrome,
Cosperville,
Faywood,
Haggatt,
Heverlo,
Markland,
Milton,
Mountpleasant and
Muncie series in
the same family and
Beasley,
Bland,
Brashear,
Bratton,
Briggsville, Chrome,
Donahue,
Eden,
Edenton,
Elba,
Eldean,
Estate,
Fredonia,
Hagerstown,
Heitt,
Jessup,
Kewaunee,
Lamoille,
Newnata,
Paintcreek, Redbrush(T),
Shrouts, Solway(T),
Upshur,
Vandalia,
Woodsfield and
Wynn
series in related families. Some of them may become competitors as their classification is updated
to the eighth edition of taxonomy. Briggsville, Elba, Eldean, Kewaunee and Markland soils have carbonates in the lower part of the series control section. Bland, Bratton, Caneyville, Chrome, Donahue, Eden, Edenton, Faywood, Fredonia, Heverlo, Milton, Redbrush(T), Shrouts, Solway(T),
and Wynn soils have either a lithic or paralithic contact within a depth of 40 inches. Beasley soils have Bt horizons less than 20 inches thick. Bledsoe soils formed in colluvium. Bonnell soils have formed in loess and underlying glacial till. Brashear soils are formed in residuum or colluvium of interbedded calcareous shales and siltstones and thin-bedded fossilferous limestones. Estate soils have more than 5 percent coarse fragments in the upper part of the solum. Bucklick, Hagerstown, Heitt, Upshur, Vandalia, and Woodsfield soils have hue of 5YR or redder either throughout the B horizon or in some subhorizons of the B horizon. Estate soils have more sand in the solum.
Lamoille soils have a loamy-skeletal horizon in the lower part of the solum above 40 inches. Newnata soils have greater than 5 percent coarse fragments in the upper solum. Markland soils are formed in lacustrine sediments. Cosperville, Jessup, Mountpleasant, and Muncie soils have glacial pebbles and stones in the solum. Paintcreek soils have two or more lithologic discontinuities.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Lowell soils are on upland ridgetops and sideslopes or footslopes and benches. Slopes range from 2 to 65 percent. These soils formed in residuum, mantled with up to 18 inches of loess in some areas, or slope creep from soils formed in residuum from limestone or interbedded limestone, shale, and siltstone. Mean annual temperature ranges from 53 to 56 degrees F, and the mean annual precipitation ranges from 40 to 52 inches.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the competing
Beasley,
Eden, and
Faywood series and the
Culleoka,
Cynthiana,
Fairmount,
Guernsey,
Library,
Nicholson, and
Westmoreland series. Culleoka, Cynthiana, and Fairmount soils have bedrock at depths of less than 40 inches. Guernsey and Library soils have low chroma redoximorphic features in the solum. Nicholson soils have fragipans. Westmoreland soils have less than 35 percent clay in the control section.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained, with moderate or rapid runoff. Permeability is moderately slow.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are used for growing corn, tobacco, hay, or pasture. Native forest has upland oaks, hickory, walnut, ash, hackberry, locusts, redbud, and red cedar as the dominant species.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Kentucky, Southeastern Indiana, Southern Ohio, Southwestern Pennsylvania, and possibly the northern panhandle of West Virginia. MLRA 116A, 121, 126, 128. This soil series is of large extent.
MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Lexington, Kentucky
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Garrard County, Kentucky, 1921.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
1). Ochric epipedon: 0 to 11 inches (Ap)
2). Argillic horizon: 11 to 41 inches (Bt1, Bt2, Bt3)
3). Lithic contact is at 53 inches.