LOCATION HANDSHOE KY+WVEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, semiactive, mesic Typic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Handshoe very channery loam in an area of Fedscreek-Shelocta-Handshoe complex, 30 to 80 percent slopes, very stony on a wooded hillside. (Colors are for moist soil.)
Oi--0 to 2 inches; undecomposed and slightly decomposed hardwood leaf litter; abrupt wavy boundary. (0 to 4 inches thick)
A--2 to 9 inches; dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) very channery loam; pale brown (10YR 6/3) dry; weak fine granular structure; very friable; many coarse, medium and fine roots; 45 percent sandstone channers; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (0 to 9 inches thick)
E--9 to 16 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) very channery loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable common fine and medium roots; few fine tubular imped pores; 35 percent sandstone channers; slightly acid; clear wavy boundary. (0 to 9 inches thick)
Bw1--16 to 34 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) very channery sandy loam; weak fine subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine roots; 40 percent sandstone channers and 20 percent sandstone flagstones; slightly acid; gradual wavy boundary.
Bw2--34 to 50 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) very channery loam; moderate fine subangular blocky structure; firm; few fine roots; 45 percent sandstone channers; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bw3--50 to 61 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) channery sandy loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; firm; very few very fine roots; 20 percent sandstone channers; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bw horizon is 30 to 75 inches)
BC--61 to 68 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) very channery sandy loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; firm; very few very roots; 45 percent sandstone channers; strongly acid; gradual smooth boundary.
CB--68 to 80 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) very channery sandy loam; weak coarse subangular blocky structure; firm; very few very fine roots; 50 percent sandstone channers; very strongly acid. (Combined thickness of the BC and CB horizons is 0 to 40 inches)
TYPE LOCATION: Knott County, Kentucky; two miles north of the community of Pippa Passes and 0.8 mile southwest of the confluence of Thornsberry Branch and Caney Creek in a road cut 50 feet north of a gas well; USGS Wayland Quadrangle; 37 degrees, 23 minutes, 30 seconds N. Latitude and 82 degrees, 50 minutes, 49 seconds, W. Longitude; NAD 27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum ranges from 40 to 80 inches or more. Depth to bedrock is greater than 60 inches. Rock fragments, mostly sandstone channers and flagstones, range from 5 to 70 percent in individual horizons in the solum and from 35 to 90 percent in substratum. A few pedons have high bulk density in the lower part of the solum or in the substratum resulting from lateral water movement. Reaction is slightly to extremely acid throughout. A few pedons have surface layers that are neutral due to bases recycled during leaf decomposition or from liming.
The A horizon has hue of 10YR or 7.5YR, value of 2 to 5, moist (4 to 6 dry), and chroma of 1 to 4. Fine-earth texture is loam, sandy loam or fine sandy loam.
The E horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 1 to 6. Fine-earth texture is loam, sandy loam, fine sandy loam or loamy sand.
The BA or BE horizons (where present) have hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 3 to 6. Fine-earth texture is similar to the E horizon.
The Bw horizon has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 3 to 6, and chroma of 3 to 8. Fine-earth texture is loam, sandy loam, and fine sandy loam or, rarely, silt loam.
The BC or CB horizons have hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 3 to 8. Fine-earth texture is loam, sandy loam, fine sandy loam or loamy sand.
The C horizon (where present) has hue of 7.5YR to 2.5Y, value of 3 to 6, and chroma of 3 to 8. Texture and thickness is similar to the BC or CB horizons. Some pedons have lithochromic mottles and/or redoximorphic features below 40 inches.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the established Bremo, Cardiff, Greenlee, Konnarock, Northcove, Parker, and Watt series and the tenative Griffinsburg and Wriston series in the same family. Bremo, Cardiff, Griffinsburg, Konnarock, Slyco, and Watt soils have bedrock within 40 inches. Greenlee, Northcove and Parker soils have dominantly metamorphic or igneous rock fragments.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Handshoe soils are on steep and very steep side slopes on hills and mountains. Slopes generally range from 20 to 90 percent. These soils formed in colluvium weathered from Pennsylvanian aged sandstone. Boulders, stones, flagstones and channers cover about 5 percent of the surface of most areas. Near the type location the average annual temperature is 54 degrees F. and annual precipitation is about 46 inches.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Cloverlick, Cutshin, Matewan, Fedscreek, Guyandotte, Gilpin, Hazleton, Highsplint, Kimper, Marrowbone, Muskingum, Rayne, Sharondale and Shelocta series. Cloverlick, Cutshin, Guyandotte, Kimper and Sharondale have thick, dark surface horizons. Cutshin and Guyandotte soils have umbric epipedons. Sharondale soils have mollic epipedons. Cutshin, Gilpin, Kimper, Muskingum, Rayne and Shelocta soils have less than 35 percent rock fragments in the subsoil and they are in a fine-loamy family. Marrowbone and Fedscreek soils have less than 35 percent rock fragments in the subsoil and are in a coarse-loamy family. Highsplint soils have more than 18 percent clay in the subsoil. Matewan, Gilpin, Marrowbone and Muskingum soils are moderately deep. Hazleton and Rayne soils are deep.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. Runoff class is low on moderately steep slopes and medium on steep and very steep slopes. Permeability is moderately rapid. Depth to a seasonal high water table is 4 to 10 feet.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most Handshoe soils are in woodland consisting of mixed hardwoods and occasional conifers.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Cumberland Plateau and Mountains (MLRA 125) in Kentucky and West Virginia and possibly similar areas in Tennessee, Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Extent is moderate.
MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Lexington, Kentucky
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Knott County, Kentucky, 1997.
REMARKS: These soils were formerly included in the Dekalb and Hazleton series. The 2/2001 revision expands the lower slope limit from 20 to 15 percent and changes the MAP from 40 to about 46 inches. Competing series were also revised.
The 4/2005 revision changed the L horizon to an Oi and incorporated this horizon into the series control section.
The 7/2005 revision corrected minor grammatical errors.
Diagnostic horizons recognized in this pedon are:
Ochric epipedon - 0 to 14 inches (A & E horizons).
Cambic horizon - 14 to 80 inches (Bw, BC and CB horizons).
SIR=KY0204
MLRA=125
ADDITIONAL DATA: Reference sample S94KY-119-6 (typical pedon).
Revised: 7/98-JDM, DHK; 2/2002-ABJ, DHK