Laserfiche WebLink
• <br />SOIL SIIRVEY <br />DELTA-MONTROSE AREA <br />COLORADO <br />• CEDAR CREEK PIT <br />IInited States Department of Agriculture <br />Soil Conservation Service <br />In cooperation with <br />COLORADO AGRICIII.TIIRAL EXPERIHk7~iT STATION <br />Issued July 1967 <br />Hera Series <br />The soils of the Hesa series are deep, well drained, and moderately <br />fine textured. They are grassland soils that formed on mesas and high <br />terraces in gravelly or very gravelly, calcareous alluvium of mixed <br />mineralogy. Soils of this series are extensive in this Area, main'Ly <br />in the western half. <br />Mesa soils have a pinkish-gray or brown, friable, granular surface <br />layer 3 to b inches thick. They have a moderately yell developed, brown <br />or light-brown subsoil that is moderately fine textured and has moderate, <br />prismatic and blocky structure. The substratum, below a depth of ].5 to <br />16 inches, is very pale brown or brown loam that is calcareous and very <br />gravelly and cobbly. A strong accumulation of secondary calcium cs.rbonate <br />occurs in the lower part of the subsoil and the upper part of the sub- <br />stratum. Generally, the depth to bedrock is 60 inches or more. <br />These soils are susceptible to erosion if poorly managed. The <br />organic-matter content is fairly low, and the structure is only moderately <br />stable. <br />Dndisturbed Mesa soils normally have a thin surface layer of loam, <br />but in this Area the surface layer is made up of clay loam brought up <br />from the subsoil. Typical Mesa soils are noncalcareous in the surf.sce <br />layer and in the upper part of the subsoil, but locally they are we:a}cly <br />calcareous throughout because they have been irrigated with calcareous <br />water. The gravel content of the subsoil ranges from 0 to as much +as <br />20 percent. In the substratum it ranges from 30 to 70 percent. <br />In many places Mesa soils are adjacent to Hack 60116, which lac;k <br />the very gravelly and cobbly lower subsoil and substratum typical oi' <br />Mesa soils. Hesa soils resemble Hinman soils but have a coarser textured <br />subsoil. They closely resemble Orchard soils, but their parent material, <br />unlike teat o.` Orchard soils, contained little or no material derived <br />from basalt or from ferromagnesian rinerals. <br />