![](media/image1.wmf)

***MLRA REGION 10 Newsletter***

***1^st^ Quarter 2003***

***(January-February-March)***

**Soil Visualization with Micromorphology Technique Enhances Soil
Study**

Micromorphology, the microscopic examination of thin slices of
undisturbed soil fabric, provides scientific information that
complements analytical data of soils. It is the one laboratory technique
that preserves the natural arrangement of soil materials in the study of
the properties and relationships of soil mineral and organic
constituents.

The National Soil Survey Center (NSSC) laboratory in Lincoln, Nebraska,
has produced thin sections of soil fabric for many of the pedons being
analyzed for chemical, physical, and mineralogical properties. Thin
sections are made by first impregnating soil material with a resin that
hardens upon heating. The soil is then sliced to fit a glass slide and
ground to about 30-\*m thickness. Particle features, such as
arrangement, size, mineralogy, and weathering, can then be examined with
a petrographic microscope. Primary soil structural units as well as the
shape and continuity of pores are readily visible.

Micromorphology has been instrumental in developing certain criteria of
Soil Taxonomy and elucidating pedogenetic processes such as argillation,
pan formation, and crusting. This science has wide application in
disciplines such as soil chemistry, soil physics, land-use management,
biology, and archaeology. Photomicrographs of soil fabrics are
increasingly used to educate students of all ages and levels (K-12,
university, professionals). These images help to visualize soil
composition and genetic processes. The slide presentation, \"Soil Under
a Microscope\",
<http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/worldsoils/microscope/>, is an
example of the educational use of micromorphology. NSSC\'s \"The Colors
of Soil\" poster, in addition to providing information about the science
of soils, features an enlarged image of a thin section of soil fabric.

For more information, contact:

Michael Wilson

National Soil Survey Center

<mike.wilson@nssc.nrcs.usda.gov>

\(402\) 437-4134

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**National Water and Climate Center Web Site Traffic Doubles**

In January of this year, the National Water and Climate Center\'s (NWCC)
Web site exceeded the customer access rate of one million hits per
month. This rate of activity is more than double the amount of last
year\'s January traffic. Customer access continued to increase in
February and March, with 1,355,154 hits in March alone. NWCC also
provides data to customers via anonymous FTP access. During March 2002
there were 252,882 FTP file downloads - also a two-fold increase from
last year.

The NWCC Web site provides water supply forecasts for the Western U.S.,
snowpack information, soil moisture and temperature data from the Soil
Climate Analysis Network (SCAN), climate data and analysis, and water
quality, hydrology, and water management technology. The increase in
access this year may be due in part to the severe drought conditions
developing in many parts of the country, especially in the Southwestern
U.S. where streamflows are forecast to fall below record minimums. A
weekly drought summary can be obtained from the NWCC Web page at
<http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/water/w_qnty.html>. NWCC also contributes
data for the latest drought information provided at
http//drought.unl.edu/dm/index.html.

For more information, contact:

Bruce Newton

National Water and Climate Center

\(503\) 414-3055

<bnewton@wcc.nrcs.usda.gov>

NOTE: This site is also available from the MLRA Region 10 Home Page

(<http://www.mn.nrcs.usda.gov/mo10/mo10.html>); click on the link in the
left frame under

\"National:\".

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**The Michigan Model of Fragipan Genesis**

"To be or not to be", that is what we always seem to ask about
fragipans. Actually, we tend to ask, "Is it or isn't it?" In Michigan we
have a lot of fragi-tweeners. They sit somewhere between a full-fledged,
shovel-breaking, curse-word-prompting fragipan and the "kinder and
gentler" sandy loam Alfisol. This fact makes our state a great place to
study the range of fragipan development, especially on the incipient end
of the range.

Beth Weisenborn, a graduate student in Geography, recently studied a
series of four soils in Michigan that represent just such a
fragi-sequence. On the "strong", better-bring-the-backhoe end of the
sequence, Beth sampled a good Munising pedon from Baraga County.
Champion, Munising's better half, was also sampled. Suffice it to say
that somewhere in L'Anse there's a backhoe operator who, to this day,
can't figure out why anyone would want to dig a pit in that da\*!m&!!\*
stuff. Beth's two soils with lesser amounts of fragipan development were
a Glennie from Alcona County (thanks, Tom Williams) that occasionally
has reasonably strong fragic properties in its glossic horizon, and a
Feldhauser from Crawford County (thanks, John and Marty). Feldhauser
tends to develop brittle characteristics in its E' horizon when dry. All
told, these four soils comprised a short but good fragipan development
sequence.

There are two main issues that must be addressed to understand fragipan
genesis:

1\. *How does the pan become so dense?* Most studies attribute the high
bulk density to close packing of individual grains and inter-grain
bridging by various compounds. Many fragipans have high concentrations
of silt and very fine sand - particle sizes that are inherently prone to
close packing. This characteristic has taken on a "brick and mortar"
analogy, where sand and silt particles are the brick, and clay or some
other cementing agent is the mortar.

2\. *What is the cause of the brittleness and cementation in the pan?*
Most studies attribute the brittleness to pedogenesis, particularly to
illuviated cementation agents. Any of a number of cementation agents
have been invoked: aluminosilicates, amorphous compounds, hydrous oxides
and gels of Si and Al, clay minerals and sesquioxides. These materials
may occur in the horizon as coatings/cutans, void infillings or
grain-to-grain bridges.

Beth's study, replete with hundreds of scanning electron microscope
images of fragipan peds of various types (see diagram below), confirmed
that **both** close-packing and illuvial cementing agents are at work in
Michigan's soils to form dense, brittle horizons. The diagram below
shows a pore that has a thick coating of amorphous, presumably illuvial,
silica and clay. These types of coatings, very common in the strong
fragipans, are the glue that holds the bricks together.

+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| ![](                              | A dense, closely packed parent    |
| media/image4.png){width="3.125in" | material, rich in very fine sand  |
| height="2.34375in"}               | and silt, also enhances the       |
|                                   | likelihood of fragipan            |
|                                   | formation - the effectiveness of  |
|                                   | any type of bonding agent is      |
|                                   | partially dependent upon a        |
|                                   | conducive architecture in which   |
|                                   | there are many grain-to-grain     |
|                                   | contacts. The main process by     |
|                                   | which otherwise porous parent     |
|                                   | materials can become dense is     |
|                                   | **physical ripening** or          |
|                                   | **self-weight collapse**; it      |
|                                   | occurs mainly in loamy parent     |
|                                   | materials, as follows. Once such  |
|                                   | a parent material is saturated    |
|                                   | and then desiccated, it will      |
|                                   | physically ripen and develop      |
|                                   | close packing and a high bulk     |
|                                   | density. Subsequent desiccation   |
|                                   | events may further ripen/densify  |
|                                   | the material only if they are     |
|                                   | more intense, i.e., the soil      |
|                                   | desiccates further. Additional    |
|                                   | wet-dry cycles can do little to   |
|                                   | disrupt already dense, ripened    |
|                                   | material (but                     |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| > *Thick illuvial coating of      |                                   |
| > silica and clay on a pore face  |                                   |
| > from a fragipan in Michigan.*   |                                   |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+

worms can!). In short, a slurried sediment will densify (ripen) upon
desiccation. These desiccation events will normally occur at the very
earliest stages of pedogenesis, as a wet till de-waters or a saturated
loess dries out.

Using the above theoretical guidance and data from her fragipan soils,
Beth Weisenborn developed a new, comprehensive model of fragipan
evolution (see the figure below). Although no one model may ever be able
to explain fragipan formation for all soils, her Michigan Model of
Fragipan Genesis appears to work well for Fragiorthods and Fragiudalfs
in the Great Lakes region, as it addresses the three main components of
fragipan genesis. It assumes that the parent material is **collapsible**
or of the correct texture, open structure, thickness and wetness. It
explains how the requisite fragipan physical properties can be attained,
by invoking **physical ripening or self-weight collapse**. And it
accounts for fragipan binding and brittleness by invoking the
**precipitation of amorphous materials** (bonding agents) at a pedogenic
weathering front or lithologic discontinuity. Beth plans to publish her
model in a soils journal, and who knows, maybe she can put Michigan
fragipans on the map!

![](media/image5.png){width="5.416666666666667in"
height="6.927083333333333in"}

*The Michigan model of fragipan genesis.*

Randy Schaetzl and Beth Weisenborn, MSU Geography Department, August
2002

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**Soils of Alabama Program Airs on Public Television**

The 30-minute Soils of Alabama video aired three times on Alabama Public
Television in July 2002. The video was produced as a cooperative effort
with the Discovering Alabama Public Television program, the Alabama
State Soil and Water Conservation Committee, and [Alabama Natural
Resources Conservation Service](http://www.al.nrcs.usda.gov/). The
video, which features the seven physiographic regions of the state and
related soils, is a part of the Discovering Alabama series. As a segment
of the Discovering Alabama series, it will air periodically throughout
the year. The video is available to school systems in the state.

Your contact is Julie Best, NRCS public affairs specialist, on
334-887-4549 or [Julie.Best@al.usda.gov](../Julie.Best@al.usda.gov).

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**Micromorphology Technique Enhances Soil Study**

Micromorphology, the microscopic examination of thin slices of
undisturbed soil fabric, provides scientific information that
complements analytical data of soils. It is the one laboratory technique
that preserves the natural arrangement of soil materials in the study of
the properties and relationships of soil mineral and organic
constituents.

The National Soil Survey Center (NSSC) laboratory in Lincoln, Nebraska,
has produced thin sections of soil fabric for many of the pedons being
analyzed for chemical, physical, and mineralogical properties. Thin
sections are made by first impregnating soil material with a resin that
hardens upon heating. The soil is then sliced to fit a glass slide and
ground to about 30-\*m thickness. Particle features, such as
arrangement, size, mineralogy, and weathering, can then be examined with
a petrographic microscope. Primary soil structural units as well as the
shape and continuity of pores are readily visible.

Micromorphology has been instrumental in developing certain criteria of
Soil Taxonomy and elucidating pedogenetic processes such as argillation,
pan formation, and crusting. This science has wide application in
disciplines such as soil chemistry, soil physics, land-use management,
biology, and archaeology. Photomicrographs of soil fabrics are
increasingly used to educate students of all ages and levels (K-12,
university, professionals). These images help to visualize soil
composition and genetic processes. The slide presentation, \"Soil Under
a Microscope\",
<http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/worldsoils/microscope/>, is an
example of the educational use of micromorphology. NSSC\'s \"The Colors
of Soil\" poster, in addition to providing information about the science
of soils, features an enlarged image of a thin section of soil fabric.

Your contact is Michael Wilson, NRCS research soil scientist, at
402-437-4134 or mike.wilson@nssc.nrcs.usda.gov.

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**Soil Data Viewer Software Uses**

By Ken Matzdorf, Soil Specialist, NRCS State Office

<ken.matzdorf@mn.usda.gov>

Soil Data Viewer (SDV) software, a component of Customer Service
Toolkit, can be used as a stand-alone product for soil reports. The
stand-alone version is useful for counties where a SSURGO-certified soil
survey is **NOT** available. SDV also can be used as a GIS product with
Arc View and the Customer Service Toolkit, which requires a digitized
soil survey on CD or soils information downloaded from the Fort Worth
National Cartographic web site.

NRCS in Minnesota now has SSURGO-certified soil surveys for 22 counties.
Several more of these surveys are scheduled for completion in Fiscal
Year 2002. A map showing the status of digitized soil surveys in
Minnesota is available on the NRCS in Minnesota web site under
"Resources Information." Click on "Soils" and then click on "Digital
Soils Information."

Below is an example of the types of maps one can generate with SDV in
Arc View:

![](media/image6.png){width="4.944444444444445in" height="3.2in"}

This farmland classification map gives the prime farmland categories for
a portion of Mower County. Many types of interpretive or land use maps
can be generated quickly in SDV, along with soils reports.

To use SDV, you need a digitized soil survey. You also need a NASIS
database download, which you can obtain from your Area Resource Soil
Scientist. The downloaded information is provided in a "county.mdb" file
format that SDV can use.

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**Ontonagon County Soil Survey Update 2002**

MLRA 92 Superior Lake Plain and MLRA 93B Superior Stony and Rocky Loamy
Plains and Hills

One leaves and one shows up. Randy Tepler took a job with the U.S.
Forest Service in Idaho this spring. He has a resource job that takes
him to various places all over the mountains and seems to be enjoying
the variety of projects he is involved in. Getting a replacement was not
so easy. There seems to be a dearth of new soil scientists. Of those,
many have advanced degrees and are not so willing to work in the remote
counties and at the low salaries offered. But Eric Gano took the
position and started in mid-August. He is a graduate student at Michigan
Technological University and hopes to finish up his degree requirements
very soon. Having been involved in various research projects in the
Forestry Department has given him good experience in various aspects of
soils and forestry and made his training easier. However, it is a little
disconcerting to know that I started my first soil mapping as a student
trainee about the time he was born. Has it really been that long?

With just Scott Eversol and myself working this past mapping season, it
was a relief to know our project got extended three years. Now we have
until the spring of 2006 to finish up. With the addition of the Keweenaw
County staff next spring, this should not be a problem. I think some of
the hardest areas have already been mapped and we expect to see few or
no new soils. In fact, we hope to start whittling down the legend some
as time goes on. We shall see.

Most people are surprised to discover Ontonagon County is not all clay.
It sure looks alike - the fine-loamy, fine and very fine soils - all are
the same color and can be difficult to delineate as they often occur
together. Clays occur mostly in the southern part of the county but are
not as inclusive as expected. Sometimes it is a relatively thin layer
over the fine-loamy till (which in turn overlies sandy deposits). The
flat areas tend to be clay with rises and hills being till or sand. One
notices the stratigraphy as one drops into the deep river valleys. Clay
on top, then till as one descends with stratified silts and fine sands
on the foot slopes. Much of the clay in the area is vertic and very
fine. If you have not dug a 60-inch hole with a hand auger in very fine
clay, you have missed an experience. It is exhausting, time consuming
and hard on the back.

In one area near the town of Rockland where I was mapping this summer, I
noticed some exposed conglomerate bedrock used for road fill. Gravel is
a rare and valuable commodity in Ontonagon County. Upon closer
examination of these broken conglomerate fragments, we noticed
fossilized clay and silt flows. This rock formation, Copper Harbor
Conglomerate, is over 1 billion years old and plants had not yet made an
appearance on land. So maybe it was not really soil as we know it today
but does this make the Guinness Book of World Soil Records as the oldest
ped surface features?

The most outstanding landform element in our county is the system of
ravines. They are steep, found all over the county, and can be shallow
or deep and up to river valley size. This phenomenon would be an ideal
geomorphic study. Anybody at Michigan State University interested? I
suspect some of the deepest ravines formed under the glacial ice. Many
of the moderately deep ones may have formed along the edges of huge ice
blocks that slowly melted after the main body of the glacier had
retreated. Some ravines may be related to ancient glacial lake levels.
Who knows? It is common while mapping in a till plain of consistently
fine-loamy or coarse-loamy till to come upon a ravine and suddenly find
sand or stratified sand along the edge. Alcona soils may be found on the
ravine slopes but no where else. It is almost as if the ravine was
eroded-out, filled-in with stratified materials and eroded once again
with only sandy remnants remaining along the edges. No elevation
difference on the rims of these ravines signals this material change.
Formed under the ice? Maybe as we keep mapping we can figure this puzzle
out.

Redox can be an aggravation on some of our steeper slopes. Eric and I
noticed it was not uncommon in the F-slope Alcona stratified soils.
Moderately well drained F-slopes? I doubt it. Complicated seepage
patterns are a fact on steeper slopes to where we all have seen organic
soils on foot slopes. But we are seeing mottles on shoulders and back
slopes. It may have to do with the density of our till soils. How
important is it?

It looks like Ontonagon Clay will not be found in Ontonagon County.
Since it is a lacustrine soil there does not seem much hope of locating
a unit of it. Sorry Loren. We have found an occasional spot where varved
remnants of the original lacustrine material dragged up by the glacier
from ancient glacial Lake Superior can be found. But it looks like our
clays are till, in my opinion. Wisconsin has found the same till clays
and set up a catina. However, like Bigfoot, we will keep looking for the
ever elusive Ontonagon Clay.

Lab sampling has been a priority for Scott. For all the time and effort
of finding, digging and describing a soil pit with the backhoe, you
might as well sample it. And we have. Since he came to Ontonagon, we
have not sent in less than 500 pounds of soil samples per season to the
National Soil Survey Lab in Lincoln, Nebraska. Considering the
prodigious amount of data demanded by NASIS, it is a good thing.

Bill Anzalone

Ontonagon County Soil Survey

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**The Dirt on Lewis and Clark**

NRCS National Soil Survey Laboratory technician Jan Lang has been
looking at soil around Lincoln, Nebraska, in a whole new way. After
former NRCS Chief Pearlie Reed challenged employees to come up with
creative ideas for a Lewis and Clark display, Jan created pigments for
her acrylic paint from soil samples at the lab and began painting scenes
of episodes from the Lewis and Clark expedition. Lang, who hadn\'t
painted for 25 years, lost no time in attracting attention to her unique
works, with the National Park Service planning to feature her work in
their \"Corps of Discovery 2\" traveling exhibit. Lang will have 14
paintings for the exhibit completed by mid-summer - in time for the
exhibit tour beginning in January 2003.

The tour will begin in Monticello, Virginia, and stop at numerous points
along the Lewis and Clark trail where thousands of visitors will view
Lang\'s paintings. \"I\'ve always been fascinated by Lewis and Clark.
It\'s been a lot of fun to research their trip and recreate these
images,\" Lang said.

Your contact is Joanna Pope, NRCS Public Affairs Specialist, at
402-443-3463 or <joanna.pope@ne.usda.gov>.

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**Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) at a Graveyard and Crime Scene**

NRCS soil scientists recently teamed up with Connecticut\'s Office of
State Archeology and local police to locate a graveyard and a suspected
crime scene. NRCS staff, using GPR, first located a graveyard, thus
helping developers avoid disturbing the grave sites. The project
attracted local media coverage, as well as the Norwalk Police Department
which then asked NRCS for help searching a site where the body of a
murder victim might be buried. NRCS GPR radar however, revealed shallow
bedrock at the scene, convincing detectives that the victim could not
possibly have been buried there.

Your contact is Shawn McVey, NRCS soil scientist, at 860-871-4044, or
shawn.mcvey@ct.usda.gov.

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**OSDs updated 10/2002- 12/2002**

FRIGID: aftad ... annriver ... balaton ... billyboy ... cress ... dody
... fenander ... fordum ... fremstadt ... frogcreek ... glendenning ...
glendorado ... grettum ... haugen ... karlsborg ... lenroot ... magroc
... mahtomedi ... meenon ... oldman ... perchlake ... perida ...
sissabagama ... slimlake ... spoonerhill ... st. francis ... stanberry
... stinnett ... totagatic ... wozny

MESIC: backbone ... caleb ... crooksford ... crowriver ... dawn ...
festina ... joy ... ossian ... pilot grove

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**Schedule for January-February-March (subject to change)**

[Week]{.underline} [Location]{.underline} [Staff]{.underline}
[Activity]{.underline}

1/13-17/03 Ironwood, MI JJJ Steering Committee Meeting

1/13-17/03 Ashland, WI JJJ Steering Committee Meeting

1/13-17/03 St. Paul, MN LLD NASIS Query Writing Training

1/20-24/03 Waverly, IA AGG, MLRA 104 Steering Committee Meeting

TWN

1/20-24/03 Little Falls, MN KDM TSS workplanning conference

1/27-1/31/03 Atlantic, IA TWN Final Correlation-Woodbury Co.

1/27-1/31/03 Marquette, MI JJJ, NASIS Data Population

JFH NASIS Data Population

1/27-1/31/03 Little Rock, AR JWM MLRA Leaders Meeting

2/3-7/03 Marquette, MI LLD MLRA 94B Steering Committee Meeting

2/3-7/03 Fargo, ND LLD MLRA 56B Steering Committee Meeting

2/10-14/03 Richland Center, WI JJJ MLRA 105 Steering Committee Meeting

2/10-14/03 St. Paul, MN LLD NASIS Report Writing Training

2/17-21/03 Atlantic, IA JFH, MLRA 107BSteering Committee Meeting

TWN

2/24-2/28/03 Lincoln, NE JFH NE Soil Scientist Workshop

3/3-7/03 Hinckley, MN JJJ MLRA 90 Steering Committee Meeting

3/10-14/03 St. Cloud, MN JWM, MLRA Coordinators Meeting

LLD,

AGG,

KDM

3/24-28/03 Spooner, WI JJJ Final Correlation - Burnett County

3/24-28/03 Manistique, MI LLD Final Field Review - Luce Subset

3/30-4/4/03 Thief River Falls, MN JWM Area Appraisal

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CONTRIBUTIONS, IDEAS, SUGGESTIONS, AND QUESTIONS ARE WELCOME

This newsletter is intended to be a forum to distribute information of a
general nature that will benefit soil scientists in soil survey project
offices. It is hoped that it will foster communications and sharing of
knowledge among those soil scientists in MLRA Region 10.

\* \* \* \* \*

Articles from other newsletters are often included to distribute ideas
and comments from other areas of the country; these ideas and comments
are not necessarily identical to those used in MLRA Region 10.

\* \* \* \* \*

The format of this newsletter is intentionally simple so that it can be
received, read, and printed by the project office having the least
sophisticated computer and printer setup.

\* \* \* \* \*

Thanks to those individuals who participated this month. It is your
efforts that have made this newsletter a success.

\* \* \* \* \*

Articles in an electronic format can be submitted to:

<rhonda.osterman@mn.usda.gov>

\* \* \* \* \*

Previous copies of this newsletter are available at:

<http://www.mn.nrcs.usda.gov/mo10/mo10.html>

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### USDA NON-DISCRIMINATION STATEMENT

> The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in
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> origin, sex, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual
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> alternative means for communication of program information (Braille,
> large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA\'s TARGET Center at
> 202-720-2600 (voice and TDD).
>
> To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of
> Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 14th and Independence
> Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call (202) 720-5964 (voice
> and TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

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