______TITLE 5 SOIL EVALUATOR ______CERTIFICATION TRAINING ______Climate Organisms ______SOIL PARENT Relief Time MATERIAL ______The geologic sediments that the soils formed in ______Prepared for: Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection By S.B. Mabee, PhD, PG, Massachusetts Geological Survey University of Massachusetts Amherst Presented by: New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission

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Page 1, form 11

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Page 2, form 11 What is parent material? What landform? Read Topo map/read the landscape Understanding geology helps.

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Drumlin Landform ______SU SH Summit SH ______Shoulder BS Kame Landform Back slope ______

SU FS Glacial Till SH Foot slope ______Sand & BS Gravel ______TS FS Toe slope

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The Parent Material ______• Where do the deposits in which the soils have formed come from?

• What are their characteristics? ______

• These are the deposits that we live in ______• Quick review of surficial geology of MA ______• How deposits got here; how these deposits are typically represented on geologic maps ______

• What types of landforms these surficial deposits are associated ______with and why

• How to recognize these landforms on topographic maps and

• Their characteristics and relevance to septic systems

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Parent materials govern minerals, color, permeability, infiltration

New England soils do not form from weathering of bedrock ______Types of ______Glacial Till Deposits ______Outwash Plain ______Clay Topset Beds ______Sand & Gravel

Delta

Wide variety, variable thick., wide range properties

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Most recent continental glaciation began 85,000 to 100,000 years ago

______Wisconsin Glaciation (Laurentide Ice Sheet) ______

Max. extent ______22,000 to 28,000 years ago ______

About 1 mile thick over MA ______

Glaciation shaped ______our landscape

And dictate which soils ______are suitable for septic systems and which are not

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______How do we know glaciers were here? ______

Modern analogs ______

Striations and Grooves

______General South to Southeast Ice Flow

______The Main Groups of Soil Parent Materials ______• Glacial Till • Windblown (Loess) ______• Shallow Bedrock • Organic Matter ______

• Glacial Outwash • Alluvial (Floodplain) ______• Lacustrine (Lakebed) • Coastal Deposits Deposits ______• Fill Material • Marine Silts and Clays (Human Transported Material)

What Makes Our Landscape So Diverse? ______• Wide variety and complex environments that occur when the ice is retreating and actively melting ______• Meltwater stream spew tons of sand and gravel with high permeability while glacial lakes accumulate thick deposits ______of low permeability silts and clays The Bottom Line ______

• The advance and retreat of glaciers imparted significant ______heterogeneity to our landscape that changes rapidly in both a lateral as well as vertical direction ______• How did different glacial deposits form, how are they manifested in the landscape, how can they be identified on topographic maps and how do they affect soil properties

______Glacial Till ______Dominantly unsorted and unstratified debris, deposited directly by the glacier, and consisting ______of a heterogeneous mixture of all the particle sizes – clay, silt, sand, gravel, cobbles and boulders ______

______Two Types of Glacial Till ______Lodgement or Basal Till ______Compact, dense deposited at the base of an actively flowing (moving) glacier ______Ablation Till ______Loose, sandier till deposited by the melting ______(wasting) glacier

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>50% sand, 25-35% silt, <17% (8%) Ubiquitous <10 ft thick to a max. of 230 feet ______

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______Characteristics of Lodgement Till ______

• Heterogeneous mixture of all particles sizes – ______clay to boulder size ______• Unsorted, not stratified ______• Angular shaped rock fragments ______• Firm and compact ______• Clay content relatively high (5 – 25%)

• Rock fragments are held firmly in place

______Characteristics of Lodgement Till (con’t) ______• Typically occurs 2.5 to 3 feet below ground surface ______• Locally referred to as “hardpan” ______• Often has a perched water table during wet seasons and following periods of heavy precipitation ______

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Oxidized upper zone Grey lower zone Dry enough for oxidized horizon

______Characteristics of Ablation Till ______• Dominantly loose sandy to gravelly material ______• Typically extremely variable with pockets and ______discontinuous strata of different material ______• Unstratified to coarsely stratified ______• Very little clay (2 – 10%) ______• Often has a high percentage of angular cobbles and boulders

______Removal it looks like sand

Wet it and it remains dirty ______

______Variety of tills and their color depends on the bedrock mineralogy from which they were derived ______Light Gray Till Granites and/or Gneiss ______Dark Till Rocks w/Dark Mineralogy

Red Till Mesozoic/Triassic Age ______Rocks ______

______Lodgement ______Tills ______

More cohesive and make vertical exposures

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______Ablation ______Tills ______Less cohesive, don’t stand up as well

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Malaspina Glacier – hummocky terrain

______How do you tell where till is located and what kind it might be – Landforms

Need to know how glaciers operate ______Subglacial debris – entrained at bottom of ice

Englacial debris – entrained within the ice

Supraglacial debris – sitting on top of ice

______Glacial Till Landforms ______Moraines – ridge perpendicular to the direction of ice flow marking the position where the terminus of the ice ______stood for a period of time ______Drumlin – oval shaped hill (inverted spoon), long axis parallel to the direction of ice flow ______

Till Ridge – a ridge of till parallel to the direction of ice ______flow ______Ground Moraine – an area of glacial till without any characteristic shape

______Conveyor Belt Theory ______

Push Moraine Theory ______

Oldale, 2001

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Oldale, 2001

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______Types of Moraines ______

Terminal Moraine Recessional Moraine

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______Moraine ______

Higher elev., tight closed contours, hummocky

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Drumlins

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Drumlins ______

Drumlin ______Drumlin ______

______Till Ridge ______

Ground Moraine

______Drumlin Till ______

Ground Moraine ______

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CATENA

Drumlin – but position on landform matters

______PAXTON

 Summit position ______ Typically well drained ______ Good oxidized zone– 10YR 5/6 or 5/8 ______ Redox features if present not well ______defined, may be absent in the upper portion ______depending on landscape position

______WOODBRIDGE ______ Typically midslope  Moderately well ______drained  Bw present, colors are ______more reduced; not as “bright” – often a 4/4 ______not a 5/6 or 5/8 ______ Obvious redox features

______RIDGEBURY/WHITMAN ______ Toe slope ______ No B Horizon,  Poorly drained to very ______poorly drained, ______ Obvious redox features, ______

______Glacial Till Summary • Generally a variable thickness veneer of till everywhere ______except where bedrock (ledge) is exposed with variable percolation rate ______• Lodgement till can form a restrictive layer and produce a perched water table ______

• Soils with a percolation rate >60 minutes per inch is impervious material

______Shallow to Bedrock Areas ______Shallow to bedrock areas are associated with ______irregular terrain, steep ridges and abrupt knobs ______Some areas are nearly level to gently rolling with few outcrops of ledge. ______Depth to bedrock can vary over short distances with variable complex conditions producing ______pockets of deep soil and areas of shallow to bedrock soils within short distances

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From Peter Fletcher, 2008

______Characteristics of Shallow to Bedrock Soils ______• Extremely variable soil conditions that may ______change within short distances ______• Bedrock depth may change over short distances ______

• Often no predictable pattern to soils ______• Some bedrock (ledge) is rippable by equipment

• May be solid rock, fractured rock or weathered rock (saprolite)

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Jagged contours, not smooth, higher terrain

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______Condition of Shallow Bedrock ______• Weathered or fractured bedrock can often be ______excavated easily but is not considered suitable material for a leaching facility ______

• Weathered or fractured rock may be rippable with ______excavation equipment ______• Described as Cr ______• Hard, indurated rocks are not suitable for leaching described as R

______Shallow to Bedrock Soils ______

Very hard, not rippable

R layer

Unsuitable

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Fractured and weathered – Cr Layer - Unsuitable

______Shallow to bedrock pits ______

Refusal at 70 cm

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http://geo.msu.edu/extra/soilprofiles/Inceptisols.htm

______Tills deposited by Advancing Ice only ______Half the story! ______Set of deposits that are laid down when the ice ______melts that provides even more complexity and variability in terms of ______suitability for septic systems ______

~8000 years where much of ______what we see today was formed

Oldale, 2001

______Glacial Outwash ______

Outwash ______Plain

Meltwater, meltwater, meltwater

______Glacial Outwash ______Stratified deposits of sands and gravels deposited by melt-water streams that ______flowed from melting glaciers ______

Layered ______

Devoid of ______Clay

Rounded ______

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Higher velocity------Larger particle size

______High Velocity- large particles Farther downstream ______more rounded ______Outwash ______Outwash – Rounded and layered

Till – Angular, not layered

______Two Groupings of Glacial Outwash ______Proglacial Outwash ______Stratified outwash deposited in front of or just beyond the outer limits of the glacier ______

Ice Contact Outwash ______

Stratified outwash originally deposited in direct ______contact with glacial ice or on top of stagnant glacial ice, often collapsed ______

______Proglacial Outwash ______• Stratified, well sorted material ______• Clean sands and gravel, typically very ______little silt and clay ______• Gravel and cobbles, if present, are rounded ______or subrounded ______• Loose material, pit walls often slough

• Generally lacks large cobbles and boulders

______Proglacial Outwash ______• Most often occurs as broad, nearly level, ______outwash plains ______• Particle size dependent on original source material and the velocity of the stream ______and may range from cobbles to fine sand ______

______Particle Size Depends on Proximity to Ice Margin ______Ice Margin The “Morphosequence” ______Concept Coarse Material ______

Produces lateral and Ice ______Vertical heterogeneity Margin Medium Material ______Coarse Material ______

Ice Margin Fine Material

Coarse Material

______Coarse pebbly sand facies Coarse gravel facies ______

Sand and gravel Sand and gravel Sandy glacial lake ______facies ice-channel or marine bottom facies facies ______Sand and gravel foreset facies

Silty-clay glacial Fine-sand Sandy foreset lake-bottom bottomset facies facies facies

Stone et al., 2004

______Landforms Associated with Proglacial Outwash ______

Outwash Plain

______Landforms Associated with Proglacial Outwash ______Valley Train Deposit ______

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Outwash Plains function of Ice Margin Position

Strahler, 1966

______Formation of a ______Pitted Outwash Plain ______Flat Surface with Pits – think outwash Fast perc rate ______

Kame and Kettle terrain

Strahler, 1966

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______Proglacial outwash soil pits ______

______Ice-Contact Outwash ______

• Extremely variable material, often pockets and ______discontinuous lenses of silts and clays, and pockets of cobbles and possible boulders ______

• Irregular topography, uneven terrain ______

• Typically gravelly sand ______

• Slumped or collapsed stratification (bedding) ______

______Landforms Associated with Ice-Contact Deposits ______• Ice Channel Fillings (Eskers) – sand and gravel deposited in a stream channel within the ice ______

• Kame Terraces – sand and gravel deposited ______between the valley walls and ice ______• Kame Plains – an isolated flat terrace of sand and gravel deposited between two large ice blocks ______

• Kame Delta – sand, gravel and fine sands laid down ______in a proglacial lake in contact with ice

• Kame – any other deposit laid down next to ice

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Farrell, 2012

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Ice Channel Deposits ______Ice channel deposits Think sand and gravel Think high perc rate

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Esker ______

______Multiple Kame ______Terraces ______

______Kame Terraces ______

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Soil in Outwash ______

Rounded, looser, easy to ______dig cobbles out of face of pit ______Ablation till is firmer, compact and dirtier (more silt content) ______

______Kame Plain ______

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Proglacial Lakes

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Not all Deltas form in direct contact with the ice ______

Deposits vary horizontally and vertically

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Topo = distribution of PM and expected perc ______

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 Coarse layers ______deposited by fast water ______ Fine layers either by slow water or in ______standing water ______

______Lacustrine Sediments ______(Lakebed Silts and Clays) ______

Silts and clays deposited (varved) at the ______bottom of a glacial lake which has since ______drained ______

______Small proglacial lake ______dammed by moraine ______

Lake Hitchcock was a large proglacial lake

______Characteristics of Lacustrine Deposits ______• Well sorted, mostly silts and clays ______• Generally high percentage of clay (≥30%) ______• Few if any rock fragments of gravel size or ______larger ______• How can you get rocks in a lacustrine deposit

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Lacustrine ______Sediments ______

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______Marine Silts and Clays ______Fine sediments deposited within a marine environment and since uplifted (isostatic ______rebound) above present day sea level ______

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Wolcott, 1970

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Marine Silts and Clays ______In New England ______Only in Boston area and north close ______to coast ______Typically well sorted high in silts and clays ______Locally called the Boston Blue Clay

Modified from Jorgensen, 1971

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______Examples of soils in lacustrine and marine clays to show the range of characteristics and textures that ______can be found in these environments

______POST GLACIAL ______Windblown Deposits (Eolian Deposits) ______• Windblown fine sands and silts ______• Deposited as glacier wasted northward ______• Active before landscape was vegetated ______

• Occurs as mantle (layer) of fine sand and silts ______overlying other glacial material

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______Eolian ______

______Examples of eolian soil pits ______

______Organic Deposits ______Bog, swamp and marsh deposits of ______partially and well decomposed organic matter ______

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______Characteristics of Organic Soils ______

• Weak Strength, spongy sensation under foot ______• Very dark color ______• Little to no mineral matter, smooth creamy feel and no grittiness ______• Formed in areas of seasonal high water table at or near the land surface

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______Coastal Deposits Dunes ______A natural hill, mound or ridge landward of a ______coastal beach, often parallel to the shoreline ______Deposited by wind ______Well sorted, often finely stratified ______Little or no silt and clay, no gravel or coarser rock fragments ______

Often have unvegetated areas of loose sand

______Beach ______At interface between water and land ______Usually eroded from other material and ______reworked by wave action ______Dominantly fine to coarse sand; can contain gravel and cobbles depending on source material ______

Often stratified ______

Little or no silt or clay

______Coastal Deposits ______Coastal sand dunes, beaches and tidal marshes ______

______Alluvial Deposits (Floodplain and Terraces) ______Sediments deposited by present day streams and rivers ______

Typically occur as nearly level terraces ______adjacent to the stream banks ______

Terraces often built by reworking previously ______deposited glacial outwash deposits (kame terraces, outwash, valley train deposits)

______Terrace ______

Terrace ______

______Floodplain ______Susceptible to seasonal flooding ______Nearly level areas adjacent to large streams and rivers ______

Well sorted, often stratified ______

Variable grain size depending on velocity of ______water that deposited the sediment ______May have dark buried soils in substratum that were at one time surface layers

______Consequences of living in a floodplain

______A C ______

B ______

Plummer 1991

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Never depend on one source of data

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______Human Transported Material ______Also called Fill Material, Artificial Fill, Anthropogenic Soil ______

Intentionally moved by aid of heavy equipment ______and placed in a different area ______Can be clean fill for construction or construction ______rubble, hazardous waste, landfill or anything

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HTM Soil ______Bottomline ______What is the story behind the soil ______Understand the geology ______Then you understand the processes ______

Then you can figure out what is going on

______Summary Till ______Heterogeneous mixture of particles ranging from clay size up to boulders; unsorted, unstratified; generally found in higher ______elevation terrain away from stream and river valleys Lodgement Till ______• Compact till, higher clay content, forms under the ice ______• Found in core of drumlins, ground moraine • Low perc rate to possibly impervious • Forms hardpan 2-3 feet below ground ______Ablation Till ______• Looser and sandier till that forms from meltout of material entrained or on top of the glacier • Found anywhere • Slow to fast perc rate depending on sand content

______Till Landforms Drumlins, Ground Moraines, Till Ridges and Moraine ______Glacial Outwash ______• Well sorted, stratified deposits of fine to medium sand, gravel and cobbles ______• Size distribution depends on water velocity and proximity glacial ice margin ______• Generally forms in lower topographic areas and major valleys • Moderate to fast perc rates ______Glacial Outwash Landforms ______Outwash plain, valley train deposits, kame plain, kame terrace kame delta, kame, ice channel deposits

______Lacustrine and Marine Silts and Clays Lacustrine ______• Formed in proglacial lakes where quiet water allows for ______deposition of suspended silt and clay particles • Often forms varves (alternating summer and winter layers) • Can be found in any of the numerous glacial lakes in MA ______• Often covered by veneer of other glacial or post glacial material (outwash or terrace deposits) ______• Very slow perc rates to impervious material Marine Silts and Clays ______• Forms in the marine incursion after the glacial period when sea level was rising and before isostatic rebound ______• Only occurs in Boston area and north shore of MA • Known as Boston blue clay • Often covered by veneer of other glacial or post glacial material (outwash or terrace deposits) • Very slow perc rates to impervious material

______Windblown Deposits (Eolian) ______• Very well sorted, very fine to medium sand deposited by wind ______• In glacial times, formed just after ice retreat before substantial vegetation stabilized the soil ______• Can occur in thick dune deposits in interior Massachusetts ______especially proximal to former glacial lakes after draining

• Can also occur as a mantle of sediment in any soil depending ______on location ______• Moderate to fast perc rate

______Organic Deposits • Thick deposits of partially to well decomposed organic ______matter • May occur in a bog, swamp or marsh ______• Generally considered a wetland and unbuildable Coastal Dunes and Beaches ______• Dune – well sorted fine to medium sand deposited by wind ______into a ridges often parallel to shore; moderate to fast perc

• Beach – at interface between water and land ______usually eroded from other material and reworked by waves ______fine to coarse sand, can contain gravel and cobbles little to no silt or clay fast perc rate

______Alluvial Material (Floodplains and Terraces) • Sediments deposited by present day streams and rivers ______• Can have variable particle sizes depending stream velocity ______• Almost always occurs in river valleys ______• Can be reworked glacial outwash ______• Typically occurs as nearly level terraces adjacent to stream banks ______• Floodplain is the lowest terrace above the stream bank that is often associated with the 100 year floodplain and is the surface most frequently inundated ______

• Variable perc rate depending on particle size of alluvial material

______Human Transported Material (Fill Material) ______• Material intentionally moved by aid of heavy equipment ______• Can be for construction or from disposal of material ______• Can range in grain size and quality of material depending on use and purpose ______

• Variable perc rate depending on material ______