LOCATION SEWELL WV+OH VAEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, semiactive, acid, mesic Typic Udorthents
TYPICAL PEDON: Sewell channery sandy loam, very stony, on a 3 percent slope in an idle field. (Colors are for moist soil.)
A--0 to 4 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) channery sandy loam; weak fine granular structure; very friable; many fine and medium roots; 30 percent channers, stones, and boulders (90 percent micaceous sandstone, 10 percent siltstone); very strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (2 to 10 inches thick)
C1--4 to 9 inches; dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/6) very channery sandy loam; common red, yellow, and gray lithochromic mottles; massive; friable; common fine roots; 50 percent channers, stones, and boulders (95 percent micaceous sandstone, 5 percent siltstone); strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary.
C2--9 to 29 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) extremely channery sandy loam; common red, yellow, and gray litochromic mottles; massive; friable; few fine and medium roots; 65 percent channers, stones; and boulders (90 percent micaceous sandstone, 10 percent siltstone); strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary.
C3--29 to 65 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) extremely channery sandy loam; common red, yellow, and gray lithochromic mottles; massive; friable; 75 percent channers, stones, and boulders (90 percent micaceous sandstone, 10 percent siltstone); strongly acid. (Combined thickness of the C horizon is 60 inches or more.)
TYPE LOCATION: Wyoming County, West Virginia; Barkers Ridge District; about 3000 yards south-souteast (155 degrees) of Corrine and 700 yards southwest of Sand Gap. USGS Rhodell Quad; lat. 37 degrees 32 minutes 53 seconds N. and long. 81 degrees 20 minutes 47 seconds W. NAD 27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Depth to bedrock is more than 5 feet. Fragments of rock range from 15 to 80 percent by volume throughout the profile but average 35 percent or more in the particle-size control section. Rock fragments are 65 percent or more brown sandstone. The remaining percent is made up of siltstone, shale, and coal. Rock fragments are mostly channers, but stones and boulders are included. The fine earth fraction of the particle-size control section averages 5 to 18 percent clay. Reaction is extremely acid to strongly acid throughout unless the surface has been limed. Most soils have stony surfaces. Most pedons have red, brown, yellow, or gray lithochromic mottles is some or all horizons.
Many pedons that are vegetated have Oe horizons and in some cases, Oi horizons. These horizons range to about 3 inches in thickness.
The A horizon has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 2 to 6. The fine earth material is sandy loam or loam. Structure is weak or moderate, fine or medium granular. Consistence is very friable or 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 4 to 20 inches thick.
The C horizon has 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 2 to 6, and chroma of 1 to 8. The fine earth material is sandy loam or loam. Some pedons have thin layers or pockets that have loamy sand texture or contain 1 to 20 percent coal fragments. Consistence is friable or firm.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Itmann 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. In Itmann soils, more than 50 percent of the fragments are carbolithic. Bethesda and Cedarcreek soils contain more than 18 percent clay in the particle-size section and are well drained. Bethesda soils have moderately slow permeability. Cedarcreek soils are well drained, nonacid, and sandstone fragments comprise less than 65 percent of the total rock fragments. Barkcamp and Enoch soils are in siliceous families and well drained. Enoch soils contain more than 18 percent clay in the particle-size control section and have moderately slow permeability. Fairpoint, Fiveblock and Kaymine soils are in nonacid families, and Fairpoint and Kaymine soils contain more than 18 percent clay in the particle-size 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.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: The Sewell 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 regolith from mountain top removal surface coal mine operations. 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 brown acid sandstone with small amounts of gray sandstone, siltstone, and coal. 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 and related Cedarcreek, Kaymine, Fiveblock, and Itmann soils and Berks, Gilpin, 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. Pineville soils have an argillic 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: Land use emphasis is on reclamation of surface mined land. Vegetation consists of grasses, legumes, black locust, and other plants commonly used in surface mine reclamation. Some areas have established stands of naturally seeded yellow-poplar, sourwood, red maple, and oaks. Some small areas are used for pasture or hay crops.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: West Virginia, Ohio, Virginia and possibly Kentucky, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. The acreage is small.
MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Wyoming County, West Virginia, 1984. Source of name is a coal seam commonly found in the area.
REMARKS: (1) These soils were formerly mapped strip mines; Udorthents, sandstone, low base; Udorthents, sandstone, very low base. (2) Mineralogy data and other West Virginia University studies were used for supporting data. (3) Lithochromic mottles have inherited their colors from rocks. (4) In West Virginia, these soils are formed mine spoil from the New River geologic formation. (5) Under the West Virginia University proposed classification, these soils would have been classified Plattic Udispolents. (6) 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 Fiveblock (nonacid). Competing series were also updated.
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
a. Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 4 inches (A horizon).
b. Rock fragments of brown sandstone make up 65 percent or more of the total rock fragments in the particle-size control section (10 to 40 inches; C2, C3 horizons).
ADDITIONAL DATA: Additional data is available from West Virginia University.
MLRA: 124, 125
Revised: 2/88-BLW,JWB,LDS; 8/2000-DHK