LOCATION MARROWBONE KY+WVEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, semiactive, mesic Typic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Marrowbone fine sandy loam - on a 44 percent south facing slope under mixed hardwoods at 1,480 feet elevation. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated).
0i--1 to 0 inch; loose, undecomposed hardwood leaf litter; moderately acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (0 to 2 inches thick)
A--0 to 5 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) fine sandy loam; moderate medium granular structure; very friable; common fine to coarse roots; 10 percent sandstone fragments; moderately acid; clear smooth boundary. (3 to 7 inches thick)
Bw1--5 to 10 inches; brown (7.5YR 4/4) loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine and medium roots; few thin discontinuous brown (10YR 4/3) organic coatings on faces of peds; 5 percent sandstone fragments; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary.
Bw2--10 to 17 inches; strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) fine sandy loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine and medium roots; 10 percent sandstone fragments; very strongly acid; clear smooth boundary.
Bw3--17 to 23 inches; strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine and medium roots; very thin discontinuous silt coatings on faces of peds; 10 percent sandstone fragments; very strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bw horizon is 17 to 25 inches)
BC--23 to 28 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) channery loam; common medium distinct strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) and light yellowish brown (2.5Y 6/4) lithochromic mottles; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; 20 percent sandstone fragments; strongly acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (0 to 8 inches thick)
R--28 inches; olive (5Y 5/3) sandstone.
TYPE LOCATION: Pike County, Kentucky; about 7.3 miles south of the community of Zebulon; 1000 yards east of the confluence of Raccoon Creek and Morris Branch in the head of Raccoon Creek on a south facing hill slope; 37 degrees, 28 minutes, 37 seconds N. Latitude and 82 degrees, 23 minutes, 06 seconds, W. Longitude; USGS Millard Quadrangle; NAD 83.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum and depth to rock ranges from 20 to 40 inches. Rock fragments, mostly sandstone or siltstone channers and flagstones, make up 0 to 15 percent of the surface layer and from 0 to 50 percent of individual horizons, but average less than 35 percent in the particle-size control section. Surface stones range from .01 to 15 percent and are commonly associated with sandstone rock outcrops that make up from .1 to 50 percent of mapped areas. Reaction commonly ranges from very strongly acid to moderately acid throughout the profile, but may range from slightly acid to neutral in the upper 10 inches.
The A horizon has hue of 7.5YR to 2.5Y, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 2 to 4. Fine-earth texture is fine sandy loam, sandy loam, loam, or silt loam. Structure is weak or moderate, fine or medium granular.
The B horizon has hue of 7.5YR to 2.5Y, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 3 to 8. Fine-earth texture is fine sandy loam, sandy loam, loam, or rarely silt loam. Structure is weak or moderate, fine through coarse subangular blocky or angular blocky. Lithochromic mottles in shades of brown, yellow, or red and in the lower part shades of gray, are common but not required. Neither are the thin silt coatings or clay films.
The C horizon, where present, has hue of 7.5YR to 2.5Y, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 3 to 8. Fine-earth texture is loamy sand, loamy fine sand, fine sandy loam, sandy loam, loam, silt loam, clay loam, or sandy clay loam. Lithochromic mottles in shades of brown, yellow, red or gray are in some pedons. Silt coatings and clay films are in some pedons. A Cr horizon is in some pedons on more exposed locations or in areas with relatively soft bedrock.
The R horizon is commonly unweathered sandstone or siltstone, but grades to more fractured and weathered conditions on some landforms.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Bannertown, Cheshire, Devotion, Ditney, Fedscreek, Maymead, Mine Run (T) and Tipsaw series. Bannertown soils are somewhat excessively drained and formed in residuum weathered form felsic metamorphic or igneous parent materials. Cheshire soils are very deep and formed in supraglacial till on uplands. Devotion soils formed in residuum weathered from felsic to intermediate metamorphic or igneous rock with paralithic contact. Ditney soils formed in residuum affected by soil creep that weathered from metasedimentary rock such as arkose, metagraywacke, metasandstone or quartzite. Fedscreek soils are deep and formed in colluvium. Maymead soils are very deep, formed in colluvium and contain coarse fragments of feldspathic quartzite, graywacke and arkosic sandstone. The tentative Mine Run Series is somewhat excessively drained and formed in residuum weathered from metamonzonite and gneiss. The Tipsaw series is exclusively over paralithic contact with moderately cemented sandstone interbedded with siltstone and shale.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Marrowbone soils are mostly on southern and western hill slopes, mountain sides, nose slopes or narrow ridgetop crests. Slopes are dominantly 30 to 90 percent, but range from 8 to 120 percent. These soils formed in loamy residuum or creeping colluvium weathered from strongly acid through neutral Pennsylvanian aged sandstone or siltstone. Elevation ranges from 800 to about 4,000 feet. Mean annual temperature ranges from 53 to 57 degrees F. with a mean of 56 degrees. The mean annual precipitation ranges from 40 to 49 inches with a mean of about 43 inches.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Berks, Cloverlick, Cutshin, Dekalb, Fedscreek, Gilpin, Guyandotte, Handshoe, Highsplint, Kimper, Latham, Muskingum, Pineville, Rayne, Sharondale and Shelocta series. Berks, Dekalb, Gilpin, Rayne and Muskingum soils are on ridgetop positions adjacent to or above the Marrowbone soils. All of these soils are moderately deep with the exception of Rayne, which is deep. Berks and Dekalb soils are loamy-skeletal; Gilpin, Muskingum and Rayne soils are fine-loamy; and Latham soils are fine. Gilpin, Latham and Rayne soils have argillic horizons. Cloverlick, Cutshin, Fedscreek, Guyandotte, Handshoe, Highsplint, Kimper, Pineville and Shelocta soils are on lower hill slopes and mountain sides. All of these series are deep or very deep. Cloverlick, Guyandotte, Handshoe, Highsplint and Sharondale soils are loamy-skeletal and Cutshin, Kimper, Pineville and Shelocta soils are fine-loamy. Cloverlick, Cutshin, Kimper and Guyandotte soils have umbric surface layers and Sharondale soils have mollic surface layers. Pineville and Shelocta soils have argillic horizons.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. Permeability is moderate or moderately rapid and runoff ranges from low to medium on slopes less than 20 percent and from medium to high on slopes greater than 20 percent.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are in secondary growth deciduous forest with mixed stands of white oak, black oak, scarlet oak, chestnut oak, red maple, American beech, shortleaf pine and Virginia pine. Less sloping areas are used for pasture and as sites for homes and gardens.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Marrowbone soils are in the Allegheny-Cumberland Plateau of eastern Kentucky and West Virginia with possible similar areas in Ohio, Virginia, Indiana and Tennessee. The area is estimated to be of large extent, about 250,000 acres.
MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Lexington, Kentucky
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Pike County, Kentucky; 1985. Source of the name is a small community in Pike County.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons recognized in this pedon are:
Ochric epipedon - 0 to 5 inches (A).
Cambic horizon - 5 to 23 inches (Bw); and 23 to 28 inches (BC).
ADDITIONAL DATA: Characterization sample S83KY-195-017 by NSSL. Supplemental data for pedons S83KY-195-014, S82KY-195-018, and S83KY-195-016.