LOCATION EMPEYVILLE         NY PA

EMPEYVILLE SERIES

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, isotic, frigid Aquic Fragiorthods

TYPICAL PEDON: Empeyville gravelly loam - hay (Colors are of moist soil.)

Ap-- 0 to 6 inches; very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) gravelly loam; moderate medium granular structure; friable; many fine roots; 20 percent rock fragments; moderately acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (5 to 10 inches thick.)

Bs1-- 6 to 10 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) gravelly loam; very weak very fine granular structure; very friable; many fine roots; many fine pores; 20 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (3 to 7 inches thick.)

Bs2-- 10 to 15 inches; light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4) gravelly sandy loam; many medium and fine distinct yellowish brown (10YR 5/8) mottles; weak thin platy structure; firm; common roots; few fine pores; 30 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (3 to 9 inches thick.)

E-- 15 to 20 inches; light gray (10YR 7/2) gravelly sandy loam; few medium distinct light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) mottles; massive; firm; few fine roots; few fine pores; 30 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; abrupt irregular boundary. (0 to 10 inches thick.)

Bx1-- 20 to 36 inches; grayish brown (10YR 5/2) very gravelly sandy loam; moderate very coarse prismatic structure; massive within prisms; very firm, brittle; common pores, few within clay linings; 35 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; gradual irregular boundary.

Bx2-- 36 to 49 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) very gravelly sandy loam; weak very coarse prismatic structure; very firm; brittle; few pores with thin clay linings; 40 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; diffuse irregular boundary. (The combined thickness of the Bx horizon is 0 to 40 inches thick.)

C-- 49 to 70 inches; brown (7.5YR 4/2) very gravelly sandy loam; massive in upper part, moderate medium platy structure in lower part; firm; 40 percent rock fragments; strongly acid.

TYPE LOCATION: Franklin County, New York; Town of Belmont, 1.1 mile west of Brainardsville toward Malone, 100 feet south of County Route 24; USGS Brainardsville, NY topographic quadrangle; Latitude 44 degrees, 51 minutes, 21.1 seconds N. and Longitude 74 degrees, 03 minutes, 17.7 seconds W. NAD 1927.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness ranges from 30 to 60 inches. Depth to the fragipan ranges from 14 to 22 inches. Rock fragment content ranges from 5 to 35 percent in the A and Bs1 horizons, 12 to 35 percent in the lower Bs and E horizons, and 20 to 50 percent in the fragipan and C horizons.

The Ap horizon has hues of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 3 or 4 and chroma of 2 or 3. It is silt loam to sandy loam in the fine earth fraction. The A horizon, where present, has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 2 to 4, and chroma of 1 to 3. In undistrubed soils there are black O horizons 1 to 6 inches thick underlain by gray or pinkish gray E horizons 1 to 4 inches thick, and dark reddish brown, dusky red, or dark brown Bhs horizons 1 to 4 inches thick. These are mixed by plowing. Reaction ranges from extremely acid to slightly acid.

The Bs horizons have hues of 5YR through 10YR, value of 3 to 6, and chroma of 2 to 8. The lower values and chroma are remnants of Bhs or Bh horizons. The Bs horizons are silt loam to sandy loam in the upper part, and loam or sandy loam in the lower part. They have weak or moderate granular or subangular blocky structure, or the material is massive. They are friable to firm. They range from very strongly acid to slightly acid.

The C horizons have the same range in color and texture as the Bx horizons. They have platy structure, or they are massive. They are friable, firm or very firm. They range from strongly acid to neutral.

COMPETING SERIES: There are no other active series in this family.

The Crary, Howland, Peru, Skerry, Westbury, and Worth series are in related families. Crary soils have less than 15 percent coarse fragments in all horizons above the fragipan. Howland soils have silt plus very fine sand content of 55 percent or more throughout the solum and fragipan. Peru soils have hues of 2.5Y or 5Y in the fragipan. Skerry soils have gravelly loamy sand or gravelly loamy fine sand C horizons. Westbury soils have mottled in the upper part of the spodic horizon. Worth soils lack mottles in the spodic horizon.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Empeyville soils are nearly level through moderately steep soils of till plains. Slope ranges from 1 to 25 percent. The soils formed in till, which may have a thin silty mantle of eolian materials, derived dominantly from acid sandstone. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 30 to 52 inches; mean annual air temperature from 41 degrees to 45 degrees F.; mean growing season from 90 to 130 days.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Adams, Colton, Dannemora, Tughill, Westbury, and Worth soils. Adams and Colton soils developed in water-sorted materials. Dannemora, Tughill, Westbury, and Worth soils are poorly drained, very poorly drained, somewhat poorly drained and well drained,
Respectively, and are catena associates of Empeyville soils.

DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Moderately well drained. Runoff is low to very high. Saturated hydraulic conductivity in the mineral soil is moderately high to high above the fragipan and low or moderately high in the fragipan and C horizons, but ranges to high in weakly formed fragipans and friable C horizons.

USE AND VEGETATION: Most of the cleared acreage is used for hay, corn, and oats. Woodlands contain sugar maple, beech, yellow and gray birch, hemlock, white pine, and red spruce.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Tughill Plateau, the Grit Plateau, and the northern fringe of the Adirondack Mountains of New York. The series is moderately extensive.

MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Essex County, New York, 1954.

REMARKS: The ranges in characteristics have been expanded slightly to accommodate the properties of the Moira series. New York has recommended that the Moira series be made inactive.

3/2006: The last update of this OSD was in May 1973.

The present classification of Empeyville is pending further study and sampling. The typical pedon does not qualify for having spodic material by the 9th Edition of the Keys to Soil Taxonomy. The last time this series was correlated was under the 4th Edition of the Keys to Soil Taxonomy. At that time the classification was correct and the pedon qualified as having a Spodic horizon. The mineralogy class is being assigned as isotic based on older lab data rather than mixed.

This series tends to have weakly developed fragipans and spodic horizons in areas studied to date.

ADDITIONAL DATA: The typifying pedon, S57NY-17-2, was sampled
for laboratory analysis.