LOCATION NEWPORT RI+MAEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Typic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Newport silt loam - cultivated field. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise noted.)
Ap--0 to 8 inches; very dark brown (10YR 2/2) silt loam, light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) dry; weak medium granular structure; very friable; many fine and medium roots; 5 percent channers and
gravel; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (6 to 10 inches
thick)
Bw1--8 to 18 inches; olive brown (2.5Y 4/4) channery silt loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine and medium roots; 15 percent channers and gravel; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bw2--18 to 24 inches; olive (5Y 4/3) channery silt loam; weak medium and coarse subangular blocky structure; friable; few roots; 15 percent channers and gravel; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bw horizon is 14 to 37 inches.)
Cd--24 to 65 inches; olive gray (5Y 4/2) channery loam; few dark yellowish brown (10YR 3/4) pockets in the upper 6 inches; weak thick platy structure; very firm, brittle; few silt films on rock fragments; 25 percent channers and gravel; strongly acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Newport County, Rhode Island; town of Middletown, 690 feet north of the junction of Green End Avenue and Indian Avenue, and 160 west of Indian Avenue.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum ranges from 20 to 40 inches and typically corresponds to the depth to the dense substratum. Depth to bedrock is commonly more than 6 feet. Rock fragments range from 5 to 30 percent by volume in the solum and from 10 to 35 percent in the substratum. Except where the surface is stony, the fragments are mostly flat and less than 6 inches in diameter. Channers and gravel typically make up 75 percent or more of the total rock fragments. Unless limed, reaction ranges from very strongly acid through moderately acid. Low chroma colors in the B and C horizons are lithochromic.
The Ap horizon has hue of 10YR through 5Y, value of 2 through 4, and chroma of 1 through 3. Dry value is 6 or more. Undisturbed pedons have a thin A horizon with value of 2 or 3 and chroma of 1 or 2. The Ap or A horizon is silt loam, very fine sandy loam, loam, or fine sandy loam in the fine-earth fraction. It has weak or moderate granular structure and is friable or very friable.
The Bw horizon has hue of 2.5Y or 5Y, value of 2 through 5, and chroma of 1 through 4. Some pedons have few faint mottles just above the Cd horizon. The Bw horizon is silt loam, very fine sandy loam, loam, or fine sandy loam in the fine-earth fraction. It has weak subangular blocky or granular structure, or the horizon is massive. Consistence is friable or very friable.
The Cd horizon has hue of 2.5Y or 5Y, value of 2 through 5, and chroma of 1 through 3. It is silt loam, very fine sandy loam, loam, or fine sandy loam in the fine-earth fraction. The horizon has weak or moderate, thin to thick plates, or it is massive. Consistence is firm or very firm.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Amostown, Ashe, Bernardston, Broadbrook, Brookfield, Cardigan, Charlton, Chatfield, Cheshire, Chestnut, Ditney, Dutchess, Edneyville, Fedscreek, Hazel, Lordstown, Maplecrest, Marrowbone, Maymead, Montauk, Nantucket, Paxton, Pollux, Riverhead, Satsop, Scituate, St. Albans, Steinsburg, Valois, Wethersfield, and Yalesville series in the same family. Amostown and Pollux soils are underlain by stratified very fine sand or silt within a depth of 40 inches. Ashe, Cardigan, Chatfield, Ditney, Hazel, Lordstown, Marrowbone, Steinsburg, and Yalesville soils are 20 to 40 inches deep to bedrock. Bernardston, Broadbrook, Montauk, and Paxton soils have hue of 10YR or 7.5YR in at least part of the B horizon. Brookfield, Charlton, Cheshire, Dutchess, Maplecrest, St. Albans, and Valois soils do not have a dense substratum. Chestnut soils formed in residuum and have weathered bedrock at a depth of 20 to 40 inches. Edneyville soils formed in residuum and do not have a dense substratum. Fedscreek and Maymead soils formed in colluvium and do not have a dense substratum. Nantucket soils have a lithologic discontinuity and more clay in the substratum. Riverhead soils have a stratified sand and gravel C horizon within a depth of 40 inches. Satsop soils receive 60 to 80 inches of precipitation annually. Scituate soils are mottled in the lower part of the B horizon. Wethersfield soils have 5YR or redder hue in the B and C horizons.
The Pittstown, Rainbow, and Woodbridge series are similar soils in related families. All of these soils have low chroma mottles within a 24 inch depth.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Newport soils are nearly level to moderately steep and are on till plains, low ridges, and drumlodial landforms. Slopes range from 0 to 25 percent. The soils formed in acid glacial till derived mainly from dark sandstone, conglomerate, argillite, and phyllite. Mean annual temperature ranges from 45 to 52 degrees F., mean annual precipitation ranges from 40 to 50 inches, and the growing season ranges from 135 to 185 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the competing Broadbrook, Pittstown, and Rainbow soils and the Birchwood, Mansfield, Narragansett, Poquonock, Quonset, Stissing, Wapping, and Warwick soils. The moderately well drained Pittstown, poorly drained Stissing, and the very poorly drained Mansfield soils are associated in a drainage sequence. Birchwood and Poquonock soils have a sandy over loamy particle-size control section. Narragansett and Wapping soils have hue of 7.5YR or 10YR in the upper part of the B horizon and a friable substratum. Quonset and Warwick soils are on nearby terraces and are underlain by stratified coarse-textured deposits.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. Surface runoff is medium to rapid. Permeability is moderate or moderately rapid in the solum and slow or very slow in the substratum.
USE AND VEGETATION: Many areas are cleared and used for cultivated crops, hay, pasture, and nursery stock. Scattered areas are used for community development. Some areas are wooded. Common trees are red and white oak, gray birch, red maple, sugar maple, and white pine.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Eastern Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts. The series is of moderate extent.
MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Washington-Kent Counties, Rhode Island, 1934.
REMARKS: Newport soils were previously classified as Typic Fragiochrepts. Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
1. Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 8 inches (Ap horizon).
2. Cambic horizon - the zone from 8 to 24 inches (Bw horizon).
3. Dense basal till substratum - the zone from 24 to 65 inches (Cd horizon).