LOCATION MEREDITH CO+UTEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, isotic Spodic Humicryepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Meredith extremely stony loam, grassland. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise noted.)
01---2 inches to 1 inch; undecomposed organic material, mainly alpine grasses.
02--1 inch to 0; partially decomposed organic material like that of the horizon above.
A1--0 to 8 inches; dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) extremely stony loam, very dark brown (10YR 2/2) moist; strong fine granular structure; soft, very friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; 60 percent stones; very strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (6 to 12 inches thick)
B2ir--8 to 20 inches; brown (7.5YR 5/4) extremely stony loam, dark brown (7.5YR 4/4) moist; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; slightly hard, very friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; 70 percent stones; dark organic staining on the underside of stones; dark brown pellets throughout the soil mass; very strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (6 to 18 inches thick)
C1--20 to 30 inches; brown (10YR 5/3) extremely stony loam, dark brown (10YR 4/3) moist; massive; slightly hard, very friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; 70 percent stones; medium acid; gradual wavy boundary. (0 to 28 inches thick)
C2--30 to 40 inches; fragmental accumulation of fractured latite; 80 to 90 percent flagstones with individual flagstones overlapping, leaving interstices that are not completely filled with finer material.
TYPE LOCATION: Hinsdale County, Colorado; northwest of Devils Lake in the SE1/4 Sec. 32, T. 45 N., R. 3 W.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the umbric epipedon ranges from 7 to 16 inches, thickness of solum ranges from 12 to 24 inches, and depth to the fragmental substratum ranges from 20 to 40 inches. Organic carbon in the umbric eipedon ranges from 1 to 14 percent and decreases uniformly with increasing depth. Base saturation ranges from 30 to 50 percent in the A and upper B2 horizons but increases with increasing depth in some pedons. The control section has matrix texture of loam, clay loam, or sandy clay loam and has 18 to 35 percent clay, 5 to 55 percent silt, and 20 to 75 percent sand. It has 35 to 80 percent rock fragments above the C2 horizon and these range
in size from pebbles to stones. The mean annual soil temperature is 30 degrees F., and the mean summer soil temperature is 46 degrees F.
The A1 horizon has hue of 2.5Y through 7.5YR, value of 3 through 5 dry, 2 or 3 moist, and chroma of 1 through 3. It ranges from very strongly to strongly acid.
The B2 horizon has hue of 2.5Y through 5YR, value of 5 through 7 dry, 4 or 5 moist, and chroma of 3 through 6. Typically, this horizon has redder hue than either the overlying or underlying horizon. It ranges from very strongly to slightly acid.
The C1 horizon has hue of 2.5Y through 7.5YR. It ranges from very strongly acid to neutral. In some pedons the C1 horizon is absent and the solum overlies the fragmental substratum.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Bross, Mirror, Penitente and Ptarmigan series. Bross and Penitente soils have no contrasting fragmental substratums. Mirror and Ptarmigan soils have a lithic contact at depths of 20 to 40 inches. Also, Ptarmigan soils have less than 35 percent rock fragments.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: The Meredith soils are on gently sloping to very steep alpine hills and ridges. The soils formed in parent material weathered residually from highly fractured fragmental beds of latite or similar rock. At the type location the average annual precipitation is 35 inches with peak periods of precipitation occurring during the winter and is mainly in the form of snow. The mean temperature annual temperature is 26 degrees F., mean summer temperature is 45 degrees F.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the competing Mirror and Ptarmigan soils.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained; medium to slow runoff; rapid permeability.
USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are used principally as native pastureland and for recreational purposes. Native vegetation is mainly alpine bluegrass, mosses, silver cinquefoil, sedges and alpine willow.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Alpine areas of central Colorado. The series is of moderate extent.
MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Lakewood, Colorado
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Hinsdale County, Colorado, 1974.
REMARKS: Last updated by the state 3/77.