LOCATION CATEACHE WV+MD VAEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Ultic Hapludalfs
TYPICAL PEDON: Cateache channery silt loam - on a very stony, 37 percent, southeast-facing slope at 3,570 feet elevation, in a hardwood forest. (Colors are for moist soil.)
Oi--0 to 1 inch; hardwood forest litter. (0 to 4 inches thick)
A--1 to 3 inches; very dark brown (10YR 2/2) channery silt loam; weak fine and medium granular structure; very friable; many fine medium and coarse roots; 20 percent rock fragments; very strongly acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (1 to 5 inches thick)
BA--3 to 7 inches; dark reddish brown (5YR 3/4) channery silt loam; weak fine and medium subangular blocky structure; friable; many fine medium and coarse roots; 15 percent rock fragments; very strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (0 to 6 inches thick)
Bt1--7 to 23 inches; reddish brown (5YR 4/4) channery silty clay loam; moderate medium and fine subangular blocky structure; friable; many fine medium and coarse roots; common distinct clay films on faces of peds, in pores and on rock fragments; 25 percent rock fragments; very strongly acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bt2--23 to 29 inches; reddish brown (5YR 4/4) very channery silty clay loam; weak fine and medium subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine and medium roots; common distinct clay films on faces of peds, in pores and on rock fragments; 45 percent rock fragments; very strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bt horizon is 12 to 35 inches.)
C--29 to 33 inches; reddish brown (2.5YR 4/4) extremely channery silty clay loam; massive; firm; few fine roots; 80 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (0 to 10 inches thick)
Cr--33 inches; dark reddish brown (2.5YR 3/4) fractured siltstone.
TYPE LOCATION: Pocahontas County, West Virginia; on Back Allegheny Mountain, approximately 1.25 miles northwest of the confluence of the East Fork and the West Fork of the Greenbrier River.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness ranges from 18 to 40 inches and depth to bedrock ranges from 20 to 40 inches. Rock fragments are dominantly siltstone but include shale and fine-grained sandstone. Rock fragments are mostly channers and content ranges from 5 to 25 percent by volume in the A and BA horizons, from 10 to 50 percent in the Bt horizon, and from 35 to 80 percent in the BC and C horizons. Rock fragments average 15 to 35 percent in the particle size control section. Reaction ranges from very strongly acid through moderately acid in the A and B horizons and from strongly acid through moderately acid in the C horizon. The fine-earth fraction of the A and Bt horizons contains less than 15 percent fine and coarser sand.
The A horizon has hue of 10YR through 5YR, value of 2 through 4, and chroma of 2 through 4. Texture of the fine-earth fraction is silt loam or loam.
The BA horizon has hue of 2.5YR or 5YR, value of 3 through 5, and chroma of 2 through 4. Texture of the fine-earth fraction is silt loam or loam.
The Bt horizon has hue of 2.5YR or 5YR, value of 3 or 4, and chroma of 3 through 6. Texture of the fine-earth fraction is silt loam or silty clay loam. Structure is weak or moderate; fine, medium, or coarse subangular blocky.
Some pedons have a BC horizon with colors and textures similar to the Bt horizon.
The C horizon has hue of 5YR through 10R, value of 3 through 5, and chroma of 3 or 4. Texture of the fine-earth fraction is silt loam or silty clay loam.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Athol, Beech, Bolton, Bookwood, Brecknock, Caribel, Carpenter, Culleoka, Door, Dormont, Duffield, Dumfries, Ebbing, Frondorf, Grayford, Greencreek, Hayter, Lamotte, Legore, Loudonville, Manassas, Mechanicsburg, Morrison, Myersville, Neshaminy, Oatlands, Panorama, Penn, Ryder, Spriggs, Sudley, Washington, Weedmark, Westmoreland, Wheeling, and Williamsburg series in the same family, and the Belmont, Calvin, and Shouns series in related families. Belmont, Manassas, and Shouns soils have bedrock at a depth greater than 40 inches. Belmont soils formed in residuum weathered from limestone. Manassas and Shouns soils formed in old colluvium or alluvium. Calvin soils are loamy-skeletal and have a cambic horizon. Penn and Sudley soils formed in Triassic residuum and contain more than 15 percent fine and coarser sand in the fine-earth fraction. The other competing series have yellower hue in the argillic horizon or have solum thickness and depth to bedrock exceeding 40 inches.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Cateache soils are on steep and very steep side slopes of mountains and ridges and on gently sloping to moderately steep benches and ridgetops. Slope ranges from 3 to 80 percent. Cateache soils developed in residuum weathered mostly from red, interbedded siltstone and shale of the Mississippian system. The climate is humid continental with long winter snow cover. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 40 to 60 inches and is evenly distributed throughout the year. Mean annual temperature ranges from 47 to 53 degrees F. Annual frost-free days range from 100 to 140.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the competing Belmont, Calvin, and Shouns soils, and the Berks, Dekalb, Gauley, and Mandy soils. Berks, Dekalb, Gauley, and Mandy soils have loamy-skeletal particle-size control sections, cambic horizons, and have 7.5YR or yellower hue in subsurface horizons. Gauley and Mandy soils have frigid soil temperature regimes and are at higher elevations on the mountain landscape.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained with medium to very rapid runoff. Permeability is moderate.
USE AND VEGETATION: Mostly wooded with northern hardwoods consisting of American beech, black birch, yellow birch, sugar maple, black cherry, white ash, northern red oak, and black locust. Benches are commonly cleared and used for pasture.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Allegheny Plateau in West Virginia and Maryland, and possibly in Pennsylvania and Virginia. The series is extensive, with estimated acreage exceeding 350,000 acres.
MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Pocahontas County, West Virginia, 1988.
REMARKS: (1) In West Virginia, these soils have formed on the Maccrady Formation and the formations of the Mauch Chunk Group. (2) The soils were formerly mapped as a high base substratum phase of the Calvin series and as the Teas series (inactive). (3) Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in the typical pedon are:
a. Ochric epipedon - the zone from 1 to 7 inches (A and BA horizons).
b. Argillic horizon - the zone from 7 to 29 inches (Bt horizon).
Additional Data: SIR = WV0080, WV0081