October 2002 Soil Of The Month

http://www.pa.nrcs.usda.gov/soils/hazleton1.htm

This information and the soil profile and other images were submitted by United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service, in Pennsylvania, USA

Hazleton soils are named for the city of Hazleton in east central Pennsylvania. Hazleton soils are in woodland, cropland, hay and pastureland. Hazleton soils occur in the Ridge and Valley, Allegheny Mountain, High Plateaus, and Pittsburgh Plateaus Physiographic Provinces in Pennsylvania. Forests on Hazleton soils are mixed northern hardwoods that include white and red oak, hickory, ash, maple, and black cherry. Hazleton soils occur in one half of the counties in Pennsylvania and account for more than 1.5 million acres of the soils in Pennsylvania (5 percent of the state).   The Hazleton soil series was established in Carbon County Pennsylvania in 1960 during the height of the soil survey mapping program in Pennsylvania. Hazleton soils are also mapped in Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia and West Virginia. Hazleton soils occur in 33 Pennsylvania counties.

HAZLETON SOIL PROFILE Hazleton soils are deep and very deep, well drained soils formed in residuum from acid gray and brown sandstone. They are on convex upland plateaus, ridge tops and shoulder slopes.   Hazleton soils have a stony or channery surface layer and many rock fragments in the subsoil, typical of many residual soils in Pennsylvania. They are underlain by hard, level bedded, sandstone bedrock.

Typical Hazleton soil profile in a wooded area:
Surface: 0 to 2 inches, dark brown stony sandy loam.
Subsurface: 2 to 8 inches, dark gray stony sandy loam.
Subsoil: 8 to 10 inches, dark reddish brown channery sandy loam.
10 to 30 inches, yellowish brown very channery sandy loam.
Substratum: 20 to 60 inches, light yellowish brown very stony sandy loam.
Bedrock: 60 + inches, level bedded gray sandstone.

HAZLETON
Soil Classification: Loamy-skeletal, siliceous, subactive, mesic, Typic Dystrudrepts
Setting: Hazleton soils are on the nearly level to steep convex shoulder slopes, tops and side slopes of plateaus and ridges of the Allegheny Plateau. They formed in residuum from acid gray and brown interbedded sedimentary sandstone with some siltstone. Average annual precipitation is about 48 inches and average annual air temperature is about 51 degrees F.


This is a typical landscape where you might find a Hazleton soil.

 

Here is some more information on the Hazleton Soil.