LOCATION NASSAU NY MA NJ VTEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, active, mesic Lithic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Nassau channery silt loam, on a 10 percent slope in a rolling area that is pastured. (Colors refer to moist soil unless otherwise noted).
Ap-- 0 to 3 inches; dark brown (10YR 3/3) channery silt loam; pale brown (10YR 6/3) dry: weak fine granular structure; very friable; common fine and medium roots; 35 percent shale fragments; strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (3 to 10 inches thick.)
Bw-- 3 to 17 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) very channery silt loam; weak fine subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine roots; 45 percent shale fragments; strongly acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (4 to 15 inches thick.)
2R-- 17 inches; hard brown (10YR 4/3) and greenish gray (5G 5/1) folded shale interbedded with red and green shale.
TYPE LOCATION: Columbia County, New York. Town of Chatham, 600 feet west of Reed Road, 0.3 mile south of the intersection of Reed Road and Richmond Road. USGS East Chatham, NY topographic quadrangle; Latitude 42 degrees, 27 minutes, 21 seconds N. and Longitude 73 degrees, 36 minutes, 22 seconds W. NAD 1927.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum and depth to bedrock ranges from 10 to 20 inches. Rock fragments are mainly slate and shale with content ranging from 10 to 50 percent by volume in the Ap horizon and 35 to 70 percent in the B horizon. Rock fragments are mainly channers, but includes 0 to 20 percent flagstones in the A horizon and 10 to 25 percent flagstones below. Some areas are very stony or extremely stony.
The Ap horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 3 or 5, and chroma of 2 or 3. Texture of the fine earth fraction is loam or silt loam. Structure is weak or moderate, medium or fine granular. Consistence is friable or very friable. Unless limed, reaction is very strongly acid or strongly acid. Some pedons have a thin O horizon.
The Bw horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 3 through 8. Texture of the fine-earth fraction is loam or silt loam. Structure is weak or moderate, medium or fine subangular blocky. Consistence is friable or very friable. Unless limed, reaction ranges from very strongly acid through moderately acid.
Some thicker pedons have thin C horizons immediately above the bedrock.
COMPETING SERIES: The Arnot, Klinesville, Sylvatus, and Weikert series are in the same family. Arnot soils are dominated by siltstone and sandstone rock fragments. Klinesville soils have hues of 5YR or redder throughout. Sylvatus soils formed in residuum and have rock fragments that are dominantly metasedimentary phylitte. Weikert soils have 10 to 40 percent of the clay fraction dominated by kaolinite.
The Benson, Berks, Manlius, and Palatine soils are similar soils in related families. Benson soils have greater than 60 percent base saturation. Berks and Manlius soils have bedrock at depths of 20 to 40 inches. Palatine soils have mollic epipedons and are 20 to 40 inches deep to bedrock.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Nassau soils are nearly level to steep soils on bedrock-controlled, glacially modified landforms. Slope ranges from 0 to 70 percent. They formed in material derived mainly from local slate or shale similar to that of the R horizon. Mean annual temperature ranges from 45 to 51 degrees F., mean annual precipitation ranges from 30 to 50 inches, and mean annual frost-free season ranges from 130 to 190 days. The elevation ranges from 150 to 900 feet above sea level.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Bath, Bernardston, Chippewa, Darien, Erie, Hudson, Mardin, Manlius, Marilla, Pittstown, Rhinebeck and Venango soils. Chippewa, Manlius and Venango are typically associated in the extreme southern portions of MLRA 144A. Bath, Chippewa, Erie, Mardin, Marilla and Venango are very deep soils that contain fragipans. Bernardston and Pittstown are very deep soils with C horizons in dense, very firm basal till. Darien soils are very deep somewhat poorly drained soils that contain argillic horizons. Hudson and Rhinebeck soils are very deep clayey soils that are moderately well drained and somewhat poorly drained, respectively. Manlius soils are 20 to 40 inches to bedrock.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Somewhat excessively drained. The potential for surface runoff is medium to very high. Permeability throughout the soil is moderate to moderately rapid.
USE AND VEGETATION: A large acreage is in woodlots containing sugar maple, red oak, American beech and other hardwoods. Hemlock is prominent on north-facing steep slopes. A high portion is idle or in unimproved pasture. Areas intimately associated with deeper soils are used for growing corn, oats and hay.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Central, Southern and Eastern New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. MLRA's 101, 140, 142, and 144A. The series is of large extent.
MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Rensselaer County, New York, 1932.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
1. Ochric epipedon - The zone from the surface to a depth of 3 inches (Ap horizon).
2. Cambic horizon - The zone from 3 to 17 inches (Bw horizon) with less than 60 percent base saturation as evidenced by strongly acid reaction.
3. Lithic contact - Bedrock at 17 inches.
4. Loamy-skeletal - Silt loam below 10 inches with 45 percent rock fragments.