LOCATION POLLUX MAEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, semiactive, mesic Oxyaquic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Pollux fine sandy loam - hayfield. (Colors are for moist soil.)
Ap--0 to 8 inches; dark yellowish brown (10YR 3/4) fine sandy loam; weak fine granular structure; very friable, nonsticky, nonplastic; many fine roots; moderately acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (5 to 12 inches thick)
Bw1--8 to 15 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) fine sandy loam; weak fine granular structure; very friable, nonsticky, nonplastic; many fine roots; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary.
Bw2--15 to 23 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) sandy loam; massive; very friable, nonsticky, nonplastic; common fine roots; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bw horizon is 7 to 20 inches thick.)
BC--23 to 28 inches; light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) sandy loam; massive; very friable, nonsticky, nonplastic; few fine roots; strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (0 to 12 inches thick)
2C--28 to 60 inches; dark grayish brown (2.5Y 4/2) and yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) varved silt and very fine sand; massive; firm, nonsticky, slightly plastic; strongly acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Franklin County, Massachusetts; town of Deerfield, 1 mile west of intersection of U.S. Route 5 and State Route 116 in the village of South Deerfield. USGS Greenfield 7 1/2 minute quadrangle; 42 degrees, 28 minutes, 30 seconds N.; 72 degrees, 37 minutes, 52 seconds W.; NAD 27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness and depth to the lithologic discontinuity range from 22 to 40 inches. Rock fragment content ranges from 0 to 10 percent by volume in the solum and is absent in the substratum. The soil ranges from very strongly acid to moderately acid in the solum unless limed, and from very strongly acid to neutral in the substratum.
The Ap horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, with value and chroma of 2 to 4. Undisturbed pedons have a thin, dark A horizon. The A or Ap horizon is sandy loam, fine sandy loam, or loam.
Some pedons also have a thin E horizon.
The upper part of the Bw horizon has hue of 7.5YR to 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 4 to 8. The lower part of the Bw horizon and BC horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 4 or 6. Texture is sandy loam or fine sandy loam.
The BC horizon, where present, has color and texture similar to both the B and C horizons.
The 2C horizon has hue of 2.5YR to 5Y, value of 3 to 6, and chroma of 2 to 4. Some pedons have gray or brown redoximorphic features. It is silt loam, silt, very fine sandy loam, or very fine sand, usually in thin strata or varves. Some pedons also have thin varves of clay.
COMPETING SERIES: There are currently no series in the same family.
The Amostown, Bernardston, Broadbrook, Montauk, Maggodee, Nantucket, Paxton, Scituate, and Wethersfield soils are currently in similar families.
Maggodee soils are from outside of LRR R.
Amostown soils have redoximorphic features in the B horizon. Bernardston, Broadbrook, Montauk, Nantucket, Paxton, and Wethersfield soils lack redoximorphic concentrations in the B horizon and formed in dense glacial till. Maggodee soils lack a discontinuity and are more acid in the substratum. Scituate soils formed in sandy, dense glacial till.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Pollux soils are nearly level to strongly sloping soils on glaciofluvial or glaciolacustrine plains or deltas. The soils formed in glacial outwash underlain by varved lacustrine sediments. Slope ranges from 0 to 15 percent. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 44 to 50 inches; mean annual temperature ranges from 45 to 50 degrees F.; and the frost-free season ranges from 120 to 180 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are Amostown soils and the Agawam, Biddeford, Buxton, Deerfield, Eldridge, Enosburg, Hinesburg, Ninigret, Scantic, Suffield, and Windsor soils on nearby outwash plains and terraces. Agawam soils have textures of loamy fine sand or coarser to a depth of 40 inches. Biddeford, Buxton, and Scantic soils have more than 35 percent clay. Deerfield, Ninigret, and Windsor soils have dominant textures of loamy fine sand or coarser. Eldridge, Enosburg, and Hinesburg soils have textures of loamy fine sand or coarser in the upper part of the control sections. Suffield soils have more than 35 percent clay in the lower part of the B horizon and in the C horizon.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. Permeability is moderately rapid in the upper part of the soil and moderately slow or slow in the lower part.
USE AND VEGETATION: Cleared areas are used for general farm crops and truck crops. Wooded areas have oak, maple, gray birch, and white pine trees. A few areas are used for urban development.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Glaciofluvial landforms in Massachusetts and possibly Vermont; MLRAs 144A and 145. The series is of small extent. Massachusetts has 3,300 acres.
MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Hampden County, Massachusetts, 1975.
REMARKS: Pollux soils have been correlated as Agawam, silty subsoil Variant or silty substratum Variant in the published soil surveys of Franklin County and Plymouth County, Massachusetts. Cation exchange activity class determination based upon a review of available data and similar soils.
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
1. Ochric epipedon - the zone from the surface of the soil to a depth of 8 inches (Ap horizon).
2. Cambic horizon - the zone from 8 inches to a depth of 28 inches (Bw1, Bw2, and BC horizons).
3. Oxyaquic feature - based upon saturation in one or more layers within 100 cm of the mineral soil surface, for one month or more per year, in 6 out of 10 years.