LOCATION RIKERS NY NJEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Sandy-skeletal, mixed, mesic Typic Udorthents
TYPICAL PEDON: Riker gravelly coarse sand in an ash pile on a 0 to 3 percent slope. (Colors are for moist soil unless noted differently.)
A-- 0 to 3 inches; very dark gray (10YR 3/1) gravelly coarse sand; single grain except for very fine aggregates clinging to roots in the rhizospheres; loose; many very fine and fine roots; 5 percent pebble-sized carboliths, 20 percent porous, glassy, rock-like fragments of coal slag; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (2 to 5 inches thick.)
C1-- 3 to 17 inches; very dark gray (10YR 3/1) gravelly coarse sand; single grain except for very fine aggregates clinging to roots in the rhizospheres; loose; common very fine and fine roots; 5 percent pebble-sized carboliths, 25 percent porous, glassy, rock-like fragments of coal slag; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary.
C2-- 17 to 32 inches; very dark gray (10YR 3/1) stratified very gravelly coarse sand; single grain; loose; few very fine roots; 10 percent pebble-sized carboliths, 50 percent porous, glassy, rock-like fragments of coal slag; strongly acid; abrupt wavy boundary.
C3-- 32 to 80 inches; very dark gray (10YR 3/1) stratified very gravelly coarse sand; single grain; loose; no roots; 5 percent pebble-sized carboliths, 55 percent porous, glassy, rock-like fragments of coal slag; moderately acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Richmond County, New York; From the intersection of Rockland Avenue and Brielle Avenue, 1,400 feet North on Brielle Avenue to the entrance of an unnamed concrete road, then 500 feet West on an unnamed road to the EMS building, then 35 feet Southwest to the edge of the ash deposit; USGS Arthur Kill, NY topographic quadrangle; Latitude 40 degrees, 35 minutes, 37 seconds N. and Longitude 74 degrees, 8 minutes, 27 seconds W. (Rockwell GPS Receiver), NAD 1983.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The thickness of the coal ash materials is generally more than 5 feet thick. Carboliths range from 5 to 75 percent. Pebble-sized rock-like pieces of burned slag range from 10 to 75 percent. The pieces are very porous and glassy, similar to volcanic materials. The fine-earth fraction includes smaller pieces of coal and slag, and the textures include fine sand or coarser. Reaction ranges from strongly acid to neutral. Consistence is loose throughout. The only structure is the very fine aggregates in the rhizospheres. Colors are hue of N/ or 10YR, value of 2 through 4, and chroma of 0 through 2.
The A horizon may be defined more on the abundance of roots than anything else. Organic carbon accumulation would be difficult to identify by morphology.
The C horizons have distinctly fewer roots than the A horizon, but otherwise look similar. Rooting depth is generally about one meter.
COMPETING SERIES: These are Bonaparte, Hinckley, Manchester, Mecosta, Multorpor, Otisville and Quonset. Bonaparte, Hinckley, Manchester, Mecosta, Multorpor, Otisville and Quonset soils do not have carboliths, pieces of coal or coal slag in the soil.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Riker soils are on nearly level to steep artificially created landforms in coal ash piles, in railroad yards, and fill areas. These soils formed in a mixture of coal slag, unburned coal fragments, and large pieces of coal used as railroad ballast. Slope ranges from 0 to 35 percent. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 40 to 50 inches. Mean annual temperature ranges from 48 to 56 degrees F.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These deposits do not have any correlation to existing soils and may occur anywhere.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. The potential for surface runoff is very low. Permeability is rapid.
USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are generally densely covered with mugwort, Golden Rod, Black locust, Ailanthus, and Japanese knotweed. Secondary successional species include black cherry, sweetgum, aspen, birch, and Virginia creeper. Reclamation is unlikely because there is no natural vegetation to restore, and the areas vegetate naturally after deposition ceases. Recreational use is likely but is limited to uses that do not require turf establishment.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: These soils occur on modified landscapes in and near major urbanized areas of the Northeast. MLRA 144A and 149B. The soils of this series are small extent.
MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts.
SERIES ESTABLISHED: By correlation of Essex County, New Jersey based on pedon in Richmond County, New York.
REMARKS:
(1) Carbolith is a name coined at West Virginia University to describe dark colored sedimentary rocks that will make a black or very dark (Munsell color value of 3 or less) streak or powder. Rocks under this name include coal not scheduled for mining, impure waste coal, bone coal, high carbon siltstones, and high carbon shales.
(2) Coal ash supplies accumulated over more than one hundred years of time when hard coal was the main source of heating and producer of heat for production of electricity. The material often contains debris tossed into furnaces during burning. Areas used as railroad beds contain buried railroad ties and large pieces of coal used as ballast.
(3) Complete full characterization data collected as pedon S95NY085007.
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
a. Ochric epipedon-the zone from 0 to 3 inches.
b. Rock fragments of carboliths make up less than one-fourth of the total rock fragments in the particle-size control section. Coal slag makes up the rest. The combination averages more than 35 percent by volume.
c. The classification of this series is provisional until new Taxonomic classifications are developed for Anthropogenic soils.