LOCATION MONSON             ME

MONSON SERIES

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy, isotic, frigid Lithic Haplorthods

TYPICAL PEDON: Monson silt loam, on a 15 percent west-facing slope in a very stony, wooded area. (Colors are for moist soil.)

Oa--0 to 4 inches; dark reddish brown (5YR 2/2) sapric material; moderate fine granular structure; very friable; many very fine, fine, medium and coarse roots; extremely acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (0 to 6 inches thick)

E--4 to 5 inches; light gray (10YR 7/1) channery silt loam; weak fine granular structure; very friable; common very fine, fine, medium and coarse roots; 15 percent channers; extremely acid; abrupt broken boundary. (0 to 5 inches thick)

Bh--5 to 6 inches; dark reddish brown (2.5YR 2/4) silt loam; moderate very fine and fine granular structure; very friable; common very fine, fine, medium and coarse roots; 5 percent channers; extremely acid; abrupt broken boundary. (0 to 4 inches thick)

Bs1--6 to 9 inches; brown (7.5YR 4/4) silt loam; weak very fine granular structure; very friable; common very fine, fine, medium and coarse roots; 5 percent channers; extremely acid; clear smooth boundary.

Bs2--9 to 11 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/8) silt loam; weak fine granular structure; very friable; few very fine, fine and medium roots; 10 percent channers; very strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (The combined thickness of the Bs horizon is 5 to 13 inches.)

BC--11 to 19 inches; light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) channery silt loam; weak very fine and fine granular structure; friable; few very fine, fine and medium roots; 20 percent channers and 10 percent flagstones; very strongly acid; abrupt irregular boundary. (0 to 8 inches thick)

R--19 inches; slate.

TYPE LOCATION: Somerset County, Maine; Elm Stream Township (T4 R16); 1.7 miles south on #7 road from Great Northern Paper Company's camps in T4 R16, and 150 feet into the woods on the east side of the logging road; USGS Seboomook Lake East topographic quadrangle; lat. 45 degrees 58 minutes 40 seconds N. and long. 69 degrees 45 minutes 02 seconds W.,NAD 27.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Depth of mineral soil over bedrock ranges from 10 to 20 inches. Texture is silt loam, loam and very fine sandy loam in the fine-earth fraction. The weighted average of clay in the particle-size control section is 10 to 18 percent. Rock fragment content ranges from 5 to 35 percent by volume. Stones and boulders cover from 0 to 15 percent of the surface. Consistence is very friable or friable. Reaction ranges from extremely acid to moderately acid.

The Oa horizon has hue of 2.5YR to 10YR, value of 2 to 3 and chroma of 1 or 2. It has weak or moderate, very fine to medium granular structure. Some pedons have an Oe horizon.

Some areas have an Ap horizon with hue of 10YR and with value and chroma of 3 or 4. The A horizon, where present, has hue of 5YR to 10YR, value of 2 or 3 and chroma of 1 to 3. They have weak or moderate, very fine or fine granular structure.

The E horizon is neutral or has hue of 5YR to 10YR, value of 5 to 7 and chroma of 0 to 2. It has weak very fine to medium granular or weak very thin platy structure.

The Bh horizon has hue of 2.5YR to 7.5YR, with value and chroma of 2 to 4. The Bhs horizon, where present, has hue of 2.5YR to 10YR, with value and chroma of 2 or 3. The Bs horizon has hue of 5YR to 10YR, value of 4 to 6 and chroma of 4 to 8. The B horizon has weak or moderate, very fine to medium granular, or very fine or fine subangular blocky structure.

The BC horizon has hue of 2.5Y or 5Y, value of 4 to 6 and chroma of 3 to 6. It has weak very fine or fine granular or subangular blocky structure.

The bedrock is generally slate, metasandstone, phyllite or schist.

COMPETING SERIES: These are the Amadon, Creasey (T), Freda, Hogback, Lyman and Peshekee series in the same family.
Amadon soils have more than 50 percent fine sand or coarser throughout the series control section and developed over limestone. Creasey soils have less than 10 percent clay in the particle-size control section and developed over reddish sandstone and conglomerate. Freda and Peshekee soils are in areas of lower rainfall and have redder hues in the lower part of the profile. Hogback and Lyman soils have less than 10 percent clay in the particle-size control section.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Monson soils are on knolls of till plains and on hills, ridges and mountains. Slope ranges from 3 to 60 percent. The soils formed in a shallow mantle of glacial till derived principally from slate, metasandstone, phyllite or schist. The climate is humid and cool temperate. The mean annual temperature ranges from 38 to 44 degrees F, and mean annual precipitation ranges from 34 to 46 inches. The frost-free season ranges from 80 to 135 days. Elevation ranges from 300 to 2500 feet above mean sea level.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Chesuncook, Elliottsville, Monarda and Telos soils. The moderately well drained Chesuncook, poorly drained Monarda, and somewhat poorly drained Telos soils are all very deep to bedrock soils at lower elevations on the landscape. Elliottsville soils are well drained and moderately deep to bedrock.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Somewhat excessively drained. Permeability is moderate. Estimated saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderate or high.

USE AND VEGETATION: Mainly forest. Common tree species include red spruce, white spruce, balsam fir, sugar maple, paper birch, yellow birch and eastern white pine with some northern white cedar.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Maine. The series is of moderate extent.

MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Franklin County Area and Part of Somerset County, Maine Soil Survey, 1992.

REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:

a. Albic horizon - the zone from 4 to 5 inches (E horizon).
b. Spodic horizon - the zone from 5 to 9 inches (Bh and Bs1 horizons). c. Lithic Haplorthods - have a lithic contact within 20 inches of the mineral soil surface.

ADDITIONAL DATA: Source of data used in establishing taxonomic class and range in characteristics is composite data from the Field Appraisal of Resource Management Systems compiled by Dr. Paul R. Hepler, Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Maine, Orono, Maine.

Soil interpretation record numbers for the Monson series are: Monson, ME0087; and Monson, stony, ME0102.