LOCATION ITMANN WV+KY PA VAEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, semiactive, acid, mesic Typic Udorthents
TYPICAL PEDON: Itmann very channery sandy loam on a 7 percent slope in a barren area. (Colors are for moist soil.)
A--0 to 5 inches; black (N2/0) very channery sandy loam; weak fine granular structure; loose; 40 percent channers (55 percent carbolith, 20 percent siltstone, 15 percent sandstone, 10 percent shale); extremely acid; gradual wavy boundary. (0 to 5 inches thick)
C1--5 to 21 inches; black (N2/0) very channery sandy loam; massive; firm; 50 percent channers (45 percent carbolith, 40 percent siltstone, 10 percent sandstone, 5 percent shale); extremely acid; clear wavy boundary.
C2--21 to 65 inches; black (N2/0) extremely channery sandy loam; massive; firm; 70 percent channers (60 percent carbolith, 25 percent siltstone, 10 percent sandstone, 5 percent shale); extremely acid. (Combined thickness of the C horizon is 60 inches or more.)
TYPE LOCATION: Wyoming County, West Virginia; Slab Fork District; 1.5 miles north-northeast (30 degrees) of Maben (just north of Mullens) and 0.3 miles east of West Virginia Route 54. USGS Rhodell Quad; lat. 37 degrees 39 minutes 24 seconds N. and long. 81 degrees 22 minutes 39 seconds W. NAD 27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Depth to bedrock is greater than 5 feet. Channers of carbolith, siltstone, sandstone, and shale range from 15 to 80 percent throughout the profile but average 35 percent or more in the particle-size control section. Carbolith fragments constitute more than 50 percent of the total rock fragments. Reaction ranges from extremely acid through strongly acid except surface layers that have been limed. The fine earth fraction of the control section averages 4 to 15 percent clay. Soil colors are neutral or have hue of 10YR, value of 2 to 3, and chroma of 1 to 2.
The fine earth material of the A horizon is sandy loam or loam. Consistence is loose or very friable. The A horizon of some pedons was formed by stockpiling natural surficial soil and spreading over the land surface. In these pedons the A horizon is 6 to 20 inches thick and has value of 4 to 6 and chroma of 4 to 8., and the texture of the fine earth material is clay loam or silty clay loam.
The fine earth material of the C horizon is sandy loam or loam. Thin layers or pockets of loamy sand are included. Consistence is loose to friable. Most pedons have lithochromic mottles.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Sewell series in the same family and Barkcamp, Bethesda, Cedarcreek, Enoch, Fairpoint, Fiveblock, Janelew, Kaymine, Morristown, Myra, and Pinegrove series and the tentative Laguardia series in related families. Barkcamp and Enoch soils are in siliceous families and are well drained. Enoch soils contain more than 15 percent clay in the control section, pH less than 3.5, and have moderately slow permeability. In Bethesda, Cedarcreek, and Sewell soils, rock fragments are less than 50 percent carboliths. Bethesda and Cedarcreek contain more than 18 percent clay in the control section and are well drained. Bethesda soils have moderately slow permeability. Fairpoint, Fiveblock, and Kaymine soils are in nonacid families. Fairpoint and Kaymine soils contain more than 15 percent clay in the control section and are well drained. Janelew, Morristown and Myra soils are in a calcareous family. Laguardia soils formed in a thick mantle of construction debris intermingled with anthrotransported soil materials. The transported construction debris may range in material of pieces of plastic, glass, rubber, bricks, lumber, asphalt, coal ash, unburned coal, gypsum board, concrete, and steel. Pinegrove soils average less than 35 percent rock fragments in the particle-size control section and are in a have a sandy particle-size class.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Itmann soils are on nearly level to gently sloping benches, gently sloping to strongly sloping hillslopes, and steep to very steep outslopes. These soils formed in acid regolith of waste materials from deep mined coal. The regolith is a mixture of partially weathered fine earth and fragments of bedrock. The fine earth material is from fragments of bedrock which have been crushed by machinery and weathered. Dominant rock fragments are acid carboliths with small amounts of siltstone, sandstone, and shale. Slopes range from 0 to 80 percent. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 40 to 50 inches. Mean annual temperature ranges from 52 to 56 degrees F.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the competing Sewell and similar Bethesda, Cedarcreek, Fiveblock, and Kaymine soils, and the Berks, Buchanan, Gilpin, Guyandotte, Lily, Matewan and Pineville soils. Berks and Matewan soils have cambic horizons and formed in residuum on undisturbed uplands. Gilpin and Lily soils have argillic horizons and formed in residuum on undisturbed uplands. Lily soils are in a siliceous family. Buchanan and Pineville soils have argillic horizons and formed in colluvium on undisturbed uplands. Guyandotte soils have an umbric epipedon and a cambic horizon and formed in colluvium on undisturbed uplands.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Somewhat excessively drained; runoff is slow to medium on bench slopes and rapid to very rapid on outslopes and hillslopes; permeability is moderately rapid or rapid.
USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are generally barren or support sparse populations of various grasses, annuals, and hardwoods such as black birch, sycamore, yellow-poplar, and black oak. Reclaimed areas support grasses, legumes, black locust, and other plants commonly used in surface mine reclamation.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Virginia and possibly Maryland, Ohio, and Tennessee. The acreage is small.
MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Wyoming County, West Virginia, 1984. Source of name is a small community in Wyoming County.
REMARKS: (1) These soils were formerly mapped as mine dumps; Udorthents, dumps, low base; Udorthents, dumps, very low base; and Udorthents, carbonaceous, low base. (2) Carbolith is a name coined at West Virginia University to describe dark colored sedimentary rocks that will make a black or very dark (Munsell color value of 3 or less) streak or powder. Rocks under this name include coal not scheduled for mining, impure waste coal, bone coal, high carbon siltstones, and high carbon shales. (3) Lithochromic mottles have inherited their colors from rocks. (4) Under the West Virginia University proposed classification, these soils would have been classified Carbolithic Udispolents. (5) The 8/00 revision updates this series to 8th edition Keys to Soil Taxonomy standards. The CEC activity class placement is based on similar soils such as Sewell. Competing series were also updated.
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
a. Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 5 inches (A horizon).
b. Rock fragments of carbolith make up more than 50 percent of the total rock fragments in the particle-size control section (10 - 40 inches; C1, C2 horizons).
ADDITIONAL DATA: Additional data is available from West Virginia University.
MLRA: 125, 126, 127
SIR. WV0075
Revised: 05/94-JWB,ART,LDS; 8/2000-DHK