LOCATION TANBARK            NM

Established Series
Rev. DBC-RJA-ACT
11/2001

TANBARK SERIES

The Tanbark series consists of soils that are very shallow and shallow to gypsum. They are well drained, moderately permeable soils that formed in local alluvium derived from gypsum on knolls, hills, and mesas. Slopes range from 1 to 80 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 11 inches, and mean annual temperature is about 53 degrees F.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy, gypsic, mesic, shallow Ustic Torriorthents

TYPICAL PEDON: Tanbark silt loam--rangeland. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise noted.)

A--0 to 2 inches; pale brown (10YR 6/3) silt loam, brown (10YR 4/3) moist;moderate thin platy structure; slightly hard, friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; common fine and very fine roots; strongly effervescent;strongly alkaline; abrupt smooth boundary. (0 to 4 inches thick)

C--2 to 13 inches; very pale brown (10YR 8/3) gypsiferous silt loam, very pale brown (10YR 7/4) moist; massive; slightly hard, friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; many fine and very fine roots; slightly effervescent; moderately alkaline; abrupt wavy boundary. (7 to 16 inches thick)

Cr--13 inches; gypsum bedrock.

TYPE LOCATION: Socorro County, New Mexico; 15 miles southeast of Claunch; 1,200 feet east and 2,800 feet south of the northwest corner of Sec. 12, T. 4 S., R. 8 E.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:

Soil Moisture: Intermittently moist in some part of the soil moisture control section December through April and July through October. The soil is driest during May and June. Ustic Aridic soil moisture regime.

Soil Temperature: 52 to 57 degrees F.

Depth to paralithic contact: 6 to 20 inches

Reaction: slightly to strongly alkaline

Gypsum content: 50 to 80 percent on a weighted average. Gypsum is mostly diseminated, containing less than 25 percent in visible weathered forms.

A horizon
Hue: 7.5YR, 10YR, or 2.5Y
Value: 5 to 8 dry, 3 to 8 moist
Chroma: 0 to 4, dry or moist

C horizon
Hue: 7.5YR, 10YR, or 2.5Y
Value: 5 to 8 dry, 4 to 8 moist
Chroma: 0 to 4, dry or moist

COMPETING SERIES: These are the Rekop(WY) and the tentative Retsabal series (UT). Rekop soils are moist in the spring and early summer and drier during the late summer. Retsabal soils have more than 70 percent recognizable raw and decayed gypsum.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Tanbark soils are on knolls, hills, and mesas. Slopes range from 1 to 80 percent but are most commonly 2 to 6 percent. The soils formed in local alluvium derived from gypsum. The mean annual precipitation is about 10 to 12 inches but has ranged to 16 inches in some areas. The mean annual temperature is about 50 to 56 degrees F. The frost-free period is about 145 to 190 days.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Harvey, Netoma, and Rance soils. Harvey soils are deep and do not have gypsum. Netoma soils do not have a paralithic contact within depths of 40 inches. Rance soils are 20 to 40 inches deep to a paralithic contact.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained; runoff is high on slopes less than 1 percent and very high on slopes greater than 1 percent; moderate permeability.

USE AND VEGETATION: Tanbark soils are used for livestock grazing. Principal vegetation is blue grama, alkali sacaton, black grama, snakeweed, winterfat, coldinia, bigelow sagebrush, gyp muhly, juniper, Mormontea, algerita, and fourwing saltbush.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southcentral New Mexico and northern Arizona. The series is of moderate extent.

MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Temple, Texas

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Lincoln County, New Mexico, 1981.

REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:

Ochric epipedon: 0 to 2 inches (A horizon)

Paralithic contact: gypsum bedrock at 13 inches.

ADDITIONAL DATA: None

National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.