LOCATION TILSIT KY+IN OH PA TN WVEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, semiactive, mesic Typic Fragiudults
TYPICAL PEDON: Tilsit silt loam--on a smooth slightly concave 3 percent ridge top slope in second growth woods. (Colors are for moist soil.)
Oi--.5 to 0 inch; leaves and pine needles.
Oe--0 to 0.5 inch; partially decomposed leaves and pine needles.
Ap--0.5 to 5 inches; grayish brown (10YR 5/2) silt loam; weak fine and medium granular structure; very friable; many fine roots; very strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (4 to 8 inches thick)
BA--5 to 9 inches; light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4) silt loam; weak very fine and fine subangular blocky structure; very friable; common fine roots; very strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (0 to 7 inches thick)
Bt1--9 to 19 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) silty clay loam; moderate fine and medium subangular and angular blocky structure; friable; few fine roots, pores and cavities; few faint clay films on faces of most peds and cavities; 1 percent channers of siltstone; very strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (8 to 16 inches thick)
Bt2--19 to 24 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) silty clay loam; moderate fine and medium subangular blocky structure; firm; few fine roots, pores and cavities; few faint clay films on faces of most peds and in cavities; common medium prominent light brownish gray (2.5Y 6/2) iron depletions, and strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) iron concentrations; 1 percent channers of siltstone; very strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (0 to 7 inches thick)
Btx1--24 to 44 inches; light olive brown (2.5Y 5/6) silty clay loam; moderate very thick platy structure parting into weak medium angular blocky structure; very firm; few small pores and cavities; few fine distinct light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) clay films on faces of peds and along prism faces; few vertical seams filled with silt loam; many medium and coarse prominent light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) iron depletions, and strong brown (7.5YR 5/8)iron concentrations; 2 percent channers of siltstone; brittle in 60 percent of the mass; very strongly acid; gradual smooth boundary. (12 to 30 inches thick)
Btx2--44 to 56 inches; light brownish gray (2.5Y 6/2), silty clay loam; weak very thick platy structure parting to weak medium angular blocky structure; firm; few fine distinct gray (2.5Y 6/1) clay films on faces of peds; many medium distinct light olive brown (2.5Y 5/6), and strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) iron concentrations; 5 percent channers of siltstone; brittle in 70 percent of the mass; very strongly acid; gradual smooth boundary. (0 to 20 inches thick)
C--56 to 65 inches; 34 percent yellowish brown (10YR 5/4), 33 percent strong brown (7.5YR 5/6), and 33 percent olive gray (5Y 5/2) very channery silt loam; massive; firm; 40 percent channers of siltstone and a few soft channers of shale; very strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (5 to 20 inches thick)
R--65 inches; hard siltstone.
TYPE LOCATION: Rowan County, Kentucky; 50 yards west of Kentucky Highway 801 at a point 1 1/4 miles south of the junction of Kentucky Highways 801 and 158; about 8 miles northwest of Morehead near the Fleming County line.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness ranges from 40 to 60 inches and depth to bedrock ranges from 40 to 120 inches. Depth to the fragipan ranges from 18 to 28 inches. Rock fragments, from less than 1 inch to about 3 inches across, range from 0 to 10 percent in the upper solum; 0 to 40 percent in the lower solum; and in the C horizon there are from 10 to 50 percent fragments from less than 1 inch to about 6 inches. Reaction is very strongly acid and strongly acid unless limed.
The Ap horizon has hue of 2.5Y or 10YR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 2 to 4. The A horizon, where present, has hue of 2.5Y or 10YR, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 2 or 3. Texture is silt loam or loam. (1 to 5 inches thick)
The E horizon or BA horizon has hue 2.5Y or 10YR, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 2 to 4. Texture is silt loam or loam. (3 to 8 inches thick)
The Bt horizon has hue of 2.5Y to 7.5YR, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 4 to 8. Some pedons have redoximorphic features in shades of brown in the upper part, and in the lower part shades of gray and brown. Texture is loam, silt loam, or silty clay loam.
The Btx horizon has hue of 2.5Y to 7.5YR, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 2 to 8. Few to common redoximorphic features are in shades of gray, brown, olive, or yellow. Texture is loam, silt loam, or silty clay loam, and in the lower part the channery, very channery, gravelly, or very gravelly modifiers.
Some pedons have a BC horizon with color and textures like the Btx horizon.
The C horizon has hue of 2.5Y to 7.5YR, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 2 to 8. Texture of the fine earth fraction is silt loam, silty clay loam, sandy clay loam, clay loam, or silty clay. Many pedons have a thin Cr horizon 3 to 6 inches or more thick above hard siltstone.
COMPETING SERIES: The Butlertown is the only other series currently in this family. Butlertown soils have a fragipan less than 20 inches thick, and are formed in coastal plain silts and very fine sands.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Upland ridgetops with slopes of 0 to 15 percent. Tilsit soils formed in silty residuum from acid siltstone or fine grained sandstone which may be interbedded with soft shale. In places, the upper part of the solum formed in colluvium or old alluvium. Near the type location the mean annual air temperature is 54.4 degrees F., and the mean annual precipitation is 46.2 inches.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Berea, Colyer, Gilpin, Greenbriar, Jessietown, Latham, Mullins, Shelocta, Rohan, Trappist, and Wernock. Berea, Greenbriar and Jessietown soils are underlain with hard block fissile shale, and Berea and Jessietown are also moderately deep. Colyer, Latham, and Trappist soils have more than 35 percent clay in the control section. Gilpin and Shelocta soils have a fine-loamy control section. Gilpin soils are less than 40 inches to bedrock. Mullins soils are poorly drained, and have matrix colors with chroma of 2 or less. Rohan soils have a loamy-skeletal control section and are less than 20 inches to hard block fissile shale. Wernock soils are less than 40 inches to soft bedrock. All of the above soils lack a fragipan except Mullins soils.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Moderately well drained. The potential for surface runoff is negligible to medium. Permeability is moderate in horizons above the fragipan and slow or very slow in the fragipan.
USE AND VEGETATION: About half of the areas are used for corn, small grains, tobacco, truck crops, and hay and pasture. The remainder is in woodland or idle. Native vegetation is chiefly oak, hickory, Virginia pine, maple, gum, poplar, dogwood, beech, ironwood, persimmon, and sassafras.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Eastern Mountains of Kentucky and similar areas in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and West Virginia. The extent is moderate.
MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Lexington, Kentucky
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, 1910.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons in the pedon are:
Ochric epipedon: 0 to 5 inches, Ap
Argillic horizon: 9 to 56 inches, Bt1, Bt2, Btx1, Btx2
Fragipan: 24 to 56 inches, Btx1, Btx2
Lithic contact at 65 inches.