Horizon Nomenclature for Quartzipsamments in the Carolina and Georgia Sand Hills, South Carolina.

Horizon Nomenclature for Quartzipsamments in the

Carolina and Georgia Sand Hills, South Carolina

Charles M. Ogg, Jackie M. Reed, and Jarrod O. Miller

Quartzipsamments comprise about 189,600 ha (9.5 percent) of the Carolina and Georgia Sand Hills region (MLRA 137).  Official Series Descriptions (OSDs) typically have A - C (Lakeland Series; Typic subgroup) or A - E - E and Bt (Alpin Series; Lamellic subgroup) horizon designation. Horizon colors, along with a slight increase of clay and silt in the upper 100 cm of the sola, suggest a horizon other than C or E occurs in soils of both subgroups. Twenty-nine pedons were sampled in South Carolina.  Pedons were described in the field and sampled by horizon for particle-size analysis (PSA).   Munsell colors (moist) of the horizon in the upper sola are hue of 10YR or 7.5YR, value of 5 or 6, and chroma of 6 or 8.  This horizon was designated Bw (non-cambic) for both Typic and Lamellic subgroups because it has lower value and higher chroma than the overlying horizon.  Particle-size analysis determined textures are primarily coarse sand or sand and verified an absolute clay increase less than 3 percent.  Both clay and silt decrease below the Bw, but horizon colors in the lower sola, compared to clean sand after PSA, suggest these are not C horizons.  Lower sola horizons for Typic subgroups were designated Bw. BE, or Bw/E; the latter designation accounts for small, low chroma zones of non-redoximorphic sand.  The lower sola for Lamellic subgroups were designated E and Bt because it is presumed clay translocated through the soil matrix (the E part) and accumulated as lamellae (the Bt part).  Clay percentages in the Bt part range from 3.0 to 12.0 percent and 2.0 to 10.0 percent more than the E part.