LOCATION HARTLETON PA+VA NY WVEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, active, mesic Typic Hapludults
TYPICAL PEDON: Hartleton channery silt loam-cultivated. (Colors are for moist soil.)
Ap--0 to 8 inches; dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) channery silt loam; weak fine granular structure; friable, nonsticky, slightly plastic; many fine roots; 30 percent rock fragments; moderately acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (5 to 10 inches thick)
Bt1--8 to 15 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) very channery silt loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable, slightly sticky, slightly plastic; few fine roots; few distinct clay films on all faces of peds; 40 percent rock fragments; moderately acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bt2--15 to 26 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) very channery silt loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable, slightly sticky, slightly plastic; few fine roots; few distinct clay films on all faces of peds; 40 percent rock fragments; moderately acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bt3--26 to 33 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) extremely channery loam; weak fine and medium subangular blocky structure; friable, nonsticky, slightly plastic; few fine roots; few faint clay films on all faces of peds; 60 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (combined thickness of Bt horizon ranges from 10 to 46 inches)
C--33 to 46 inches; brown (7.5YR 5/4) extremely channery loam; massive; friable, nonsticky, nonplastic; common black coatings on rock fragments; 75 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (5 to 20 inches thick)
R--46 inches; brown (7.5YR 4/4) fractured sandstone and shale bedrock.
TYPE LOCATION: Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania; Eldred Township, 1.5 miles southeast of Pitman, 300 yards east of intersection of T399 and Route 53047. USGS Valley View, PA topo quad, 40 degrees 42 minutes 23 seconds N latitude, and 76 degrees 31 minutes 06 seconds W longitude, NAD 1927.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness ranges from 20 to 40 inches. Depth to bedrock ranges from 40 to 60 inches. Rock fragments of shale or thin flat sandstone or siltstone up to 8 inches long range from 15 to 40 percent in the A horizon, from 15 to 80 percent in BE horizon and individual horizons of the B horizon, and from 50 to 90 percent in the C horizon. The control section has greater than 35 percent rock fragments. Stones are on the surface of many pedons. The soil is strongly acid or very strongly acid throughout, unless limed. Illite and kaolinite are the most common clay minerals.
The A or Ap horizon has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 2 to 4. Fine-earth textures are silt loam or loam. Thickness of the A horizon ranges from 2 to 5 inches.
Some pedons have an E horizon that has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 2 to 6. Fine-earth textures are silt loam or loam.
Some pedons have a BE horizon that has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 3 to 6. Fine-earth textures are silt loam or loam.
The B horizon has hue of 5YR to 10YR, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 3 to 6. Fine-earth texture ranges from loam to silty clay loam with about 18 to 30 percent clay.
Some pedons have a BC horizon that has hue of 5YR to 10YR, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 3 to 6. Fine-earth textures are silt loam, silty clay loam, or loam.
The C horizon has hue of 5YR to 10YR, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 3 to 8. Fine-earth textures are silt loam and loam.
COMPETING SERIES: The Irondale and Macove series are in the same family. Irondale soils have sola 20 to 40 inches thick and are formed in residuum from fine grained igneous rock. Macove soils are formed in colluvium and are greater than 60 inches to hard bedrock.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Hartleton soils are on convex uplands and sideslopes. Slopes are dominantly 3 to 60 percent but range from 0 to 75 percent. They formed in glacial till or frost-churned material from brown sandstone and olive brown shale. The climate is humid temperate with mean annual air temperature of 51 degrees F., mean annual precipitation is 42 inches, and mean frost-free season ranges from 140 to 175 days or from 120 to 160 days at their northern most location.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the competing Allenwood, Bedington, Berks and Hazleton soils and the Alvira, Shelmadine, Watson and Weikert soils. Alvira, Shelmadine and Watson soils have fragipans with low chroma mottles. Berks are similar soils that do not have argillic horizons. Bedington soils have less than 35 percent rock fragments in the upper 20 inches of the argillic horizon. Weikert soils have bedrock within a depth of 20 inches.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. The potential for surface runoff is medium to very high. Permeability is moderate to moderately rapid.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are used for crops, pasture, orchards and truck crops. Wooded areas are dominantly in mixed oaks.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: East central Pennsylvania and Virginia. MLRA's 125, 127, 140 and 147. The extent is moderate with about 90,000 acres.
MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Union County, Pennsylvania, 1940.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and other features recognized in this pedon are:
a. Ochric epipedon - the zone from the surface of the soil to a depth of 8 inches (Ap horizon).
b. Argillic horizon - the zone from 8 to 33 inches (Bt horizon).
Laboratory Data: S59-PA-019-14;S57-PA-013-8.