LOCATION SWANSEA MAEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Sandy or sandy-skeletal, mixed, dysic, mesic Terric Haplosaprists
TYPICAL PEDON: Swansea muck - on a 0 percent slope in a wooded area. When described the soil was wet and the depth to the water table was 4 inches. (Colors are for moist soils.)
Oa1--0 to 2 inches; dark reddish brown (5YR 2/2) broken face and rubbed sapric material; 15 percent fiber, 2 percent rubbed; weak medium granular structure; very friable; many medium roots; less than 5 percent mineral; extremely acid; abrupt wavy boundary.
Oa2--2 to 9 inches; black (5YR 2/1) broken face and rubbed sapric material; 10 percent fiber, 2 percent rubbed; weak medium granular structure; very friable; common medium roots; less than 5 percent mineral; extremely acid; abrupt wavy boundary.
Oa3--9 to 13 inches; black (N 2/) broken face and rubbed sapric material; 10 percent fiber, 2 percent rubbed; massive; very friable; few fine roots; contains 5 percent brown (7.5YR 4/4) woody fragments 1 to 4 inches in diameter; less than 5 percent mineral; extremely acid; abrupt wavy boundary.
Oa4--13 to 26 inches; black (N 2/) broken face and rubbed sapric material; 5 percent fiber, 0 percent rubbed; massive; very friable; few fine roots; less than 5 percent mineral; extremely acid; abrupt wavy boundary.
2Cg1--26 to 32 inches; light olive gray (5Y 6/2) loamy coarse sand; single grain; loose; very strongly acid; abrupt wavy boundary.
2Cg2--32 to 65 inches; light olive gray (5Y 6/2) gravelly loamy coarse sand; single grain; loose; 30 percent gravel; very strongly acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Bristol County, Massachusetts, Town of Swansea, 1,000 feet east of Old Fall River Road, 1,000 feet south of Interstate 295, and 80 feet north of the telephone line. Lat. 41 degrees 45 minutes 57 seconds N. and long. 71 degrees 14 minutes 49 seconds W., NAD 27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The depth to the 2C horizon is 16 to 51 inches. Cumulative layers of hemic materials comprise less than 10 inches and fibric materials less than 5 inches of the subsurface and bottom tiers. Woody fragments are in some part of the organic material in most pedons and comprise up to 25 percent of some horizons. Fragments consist of twigs, branches, logs, or stumps and are 1/2 inch to more than a foot in diameter. Woody fragments are firm but break abruptly under pressure. pH is less than 4.5 in 0.01 molar calcium chloride throughout the organic material.
The surface tier has hue of 5YR through 10YR, value of 2 or 3, and chroma of 0 to 2. In some pedons the chroma ranges to 4. It is dominantly sapric material; however, in some pedons it has various proportions of both sapric and hemic materials or has fibric materials. It has weak or moderate, fine or medium, granular or subangular blocky structure or it is massive. Some pedons have a mineral surface layer of sand or coarse sand that is 4 to 10 inches thick.
The subsurface and bottom tiers, above the 2C horizon, have hue of 5YR through 10YR, value of 2 to 3, and chroma of 0 to 3. Chroma or value or both may change from 0.5 to 2 units upon rubbing. Broken faces become darker upon brief exposure to air. The subsurface tier is dominated by sapric material with a rubbed fiber content of less than 16 percent of the organic volume. The subsurface and bottom tiers have platy structure or are massive. They are very friable or friable. Unrubbed organic material resembles herbaceous and woody plant tissues.
The 2C horizon has hue of 10YR to 5Y, value of 3 to 6, and chroma of 1 to 4. Redoximorphic features are present in some pedons. It ranges from coarse sand to loamy fine sand and their gravelly analogs. Gravel content ranges from 0 to 40 percent. Reaction ranges from extremely acid to strongly acid.
COMPETING SERIES: This is the Makinen series which are from outside LRR R and S. The Makinen soils receive less 31 inches of precipitation and have less gravel in the substratum.
Freetown and Paupack are similar soils in related families. Freetown soils have organic layers greater than 51 inches thick. Paupack soils are underlain by loamy skeletal or clayey skeletal mineral material.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Swansea soils are in bogs that range from small enclosed depressions to bogs of several hundred acres in size. They are on outwash plains, till plains and moraines. Slope ranges from 0 to 1 percent. Mean annual temperature is 45 to 50 degrees F. and mean annual precipitation is 40 to 50 inches. The frost-free period is 120 to 180 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Freetown, Hinckley, Windsor, Ridgebury, Whitman, and Scarboro soils on nearby landscapes. Freetown soils are on similar landscapes and have more than 51 inches of organic material. The excessively drained Hinckley and Windsor soils are on nearby outwash landforms. The somewhat poorly and poorly drained Ridgebury soils and the very poorly drained Whitman and Scarboro soils formed in glacial till are adjacent to areas of Swansea soils.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Very poorly drained. Permeability is moderate or moderately rapid in the organic material and very rapid in the substratum.
USE AND VEGETATION: Mostly forested. Native vegetation includes red maple, American elm, green ash, eastern hemlock, Atlantic white cedar, buttonbush, winterberry, swamp azalea, and leatherleaf. Some acreage has been cleared and is used for truck crops. The main crop is cranberries.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Bogs in Massachusetts and New Hampshire; MLRAs 144A, 145, 149B. The series is of moderate extent.
MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts.
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Bristol County, Massachusetts, 1979
REMARKS: These soils were previously mapped in Massachusetts as Cranberry bog, Medisaprists, and Muck.
Diagnostic horizons and features in this pedon include:
1. Terric feature - mineral soil from a depth of 26 to 65 inches (2Cg horizons).