LOCATION WESTMORELAND PA+KY MD OH VA WVEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Ultic Hapludalfs
TYPICAL PEDON: Westmoreland silt loam - cultivated.
Ap--0 to 7 inches; dark brown (10YR 3/3) silt loam; weak fine granular structure; friable, nonsticky, nonplastic; many fine roots; 10 percent rock fragments; slightly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (6 to 10 inches thick)
Bt1--7 to 15 inches; dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) silty clay loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable, slightly sticky, slightly plastic; many fine roots; few faint clay films on faces of peds; 10 percent rock fragments; moderately acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bt2--15 to 27 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/8) channery silty clay loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable, slightly sticky, slightly plastic; few fine roots; common faint clay films on faces of peds; 20 percent rock fragments; moderately acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bt3--27 to 36 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) channery silty clay loam; weak fine and medium subangular blocky structure; friable, slightly sticky, slightly plastic; common faint clay films on faces of peds; 25 percent rock fragments; moderately acid; clear wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bt horizon is 14 to 30 inches.)
C--36 to 49 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) very channery silt loam; massive; friable, nonsticky, nonplastic; 55 percent rock fragments; moderately acid.
R--49 inches; dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) sandstone and shale bedrock.
TYPE LOCATION: Jefferson County, Pennsylvania; Henderson Township, two miles north of Big Run, 100 feet west of the intersection of routes T519 and T618. U.S.G.S MC Gees Mills topographic quadrangle; Latitude 40 degrees, 59 minutes, 55 seconds N, Longitude 78 degrees, 51 minutes, 51 seconds W. NAD27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum ranges from 20 to 40 inches. Depth to bedrock ranges from 40 to 72 inches or more. Rock fragments range from 2 to 30 percent in the Ap, E, BA, and Bt horizons, from 5 to 70 percent in the BC horizon, and from 15 to 90 percent in the C horizon. Rock fragments increase with depth and average slightly less than 35 percent in the upper 20 inches of the argillic horizon. The soil ranges from very strongly to moderately acid in the solum, unless limed, and is strongly or moderately acid in the C horizon.
The Ap horizon has hue of 10YR, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 2 or 3. In undisturbed areas the A horizon has hue of 10YR, value of 3 or 4, and chroma of 2 or 3. Texture ranges from loam to silty clay loam in the fine earth fraction.
Some pedons have a thin E horizon with hue of 10YR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 3 or 4. Texture ranges from loam to silty clay loam.
Some pedons have a BA horizon with hue of 10YR or 7.5YR, value of 4 or 5 and chroma of 3 to 8. It is loam, or silt loam.
The Bt horizon has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 4 or 5, and
chroma of 4 to 8. Texture ranges from silty clay loam to loam. Clay films range from faint to prominent and continuous to few on faces of peds and rock fragments and in pores.
The BC horizon, where present, has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma 4 to 8. Texture ranges from silty clay loam to loam.
The C horizon has hue of 2.5Y to 7.5YR, value of 4 or 5, and
chroma of 4 to 8. It ranges from silty clay loam to loam.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Athol, Cateache, Culleoka, Door, Duffield, Dumfries, Ebbing, Frondorf, Grayford, Kell, Lamotte, Legore, Loudonville, Mechanicsburg, Morrison, Myersville, Spriggs, Wheeling, and Williamsburg series. Athol and Ebbing soils have sola thickness of 40 to 60 inches or more. Dumfries soils formed in feldspathic sandy sediments of the Coastal Plain. Door soils have mollic epipedons. Duffield, Lamotte, Morrison, Wheeling, and Williamsburg have sola more than 40 inches thick. Legore soils have rock fragments dominated by diabase or diorite and have saprolite within a depth of 40 inches. Myersville soils have rock fragments dominated by greenstone schist. Cateache, Culleoka, Frondorf, and Loudonville soils have bedrock at 20 to 40 inches. Grayford soils have the depth to the base of the argillic horizon at more than 40 inches. Kell and Spriggs soils have a paralithic contact at 20 to 40 inches. Lamotte soils have 10 percent or less rock fragments in the C horizon. Mechanicsburg soils have lithologic discontinuties between 20 and 40 inches. Williamsburg soils have sola thickness of 60 to 90 inches.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Westmoreland soils are formed in weathered interbedded siltstone, sandstone and limestone and are on interfluves, hillsides, nose slopes and head slopes on dissected uplands. Slopes range from 0 to 70 percent. Near the type location the mean annual precipitation is 43 inches. The mean annual temperature is 53 degrees F., and the frost-free season ranges from 140 to 180 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These include the competing Culleoka along with the Gilpin, Brooke, Clarksburg, Dormont, Guernsey, Library, Upshur, Vandergrift, and Weikert soils on adjacent uplands. Brooke, Guernsey, Library, and Upshur soils have more than 35 percent clay. Dormont, Guernsey and Library also have redoximorphic features in their subsoils. Culleoka and Gilpin are 20 to 40 inches to bedrock.Weikert soils have a high rock fragment content and bedrock within 20 inches.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. The potential for surface runoff is negligible to high. Permeability is moderate.
USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are used for growing crops, pasture, and woodland. Woodland consists chiefly of mixed hardwoods, mainly oak and maple.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: MLRA 122, 125, 126, 128, 139, 148.
Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, Virginia, and Kentucky. The series is of large extent.
MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Reconnaissance of southwestern Pennsylvania, 1909.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
a. Ochric epipedon - the zone from the surface of the soil to a depth of about 7 inches (Ap horizon).
b. Argillic horizon - the zone from 7 to 36 inches (Bt horizon).
ADDITIONAL DATA: S62-PA-064-1;S62-PA-064-2