NRS 212 – Introduction to Soil Science Fall 2018
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Jessica Ruggieri
Application Problem #2
Please read and follow the rules provided in the Assignment Instructions
You work at Silt, Sand and Beyond, LLC – an environmental consulting firm out
of Perryville, RI – where you hold the rank of Most Esteemed Soil Scientist (MESS, for
short). Since you are the only MESS in the company, they give you all the work that has
to do with soil. The latest project has you evaluating the soils at a site owned by Antonio
Flores, a housing developer. The site has three different soil series (Tables 1, 2 and 3),
found along a toposequence.
1. Your interwebs research has led you to believe that the Bernardston series is a
well-drained soil, yet the colors of the soil don’t seem to correspond to a well-
drained soil. A colleague tells you that it’s mostly due to the color of the parent
material from which the soil formed, which she thinks is phyllite.
What do you think?
2. Your intern, Jose Kardashian, analyzed the particle size distribution of all the soil
horizons using the hydrometer method. Unfortunately he had to leave before he
finished analyzing the data – he had a guest appearance in Duck Dynasty. Here’s
his data sheet:
Series Horizon Particle size
distribution (%)
Sand Silt Clay
Bernardston Ap 30 65 5
Bw1 35 60 5
Bw2 25 65 10
Cd1 35 40 25
Cd2 50 35 15
Stissing Ap 25 60 15
Bg 35 30 35
Cdg 35 60 5
Mansfield Oa ??? ??? ???
A 5 65 30
Bg1 35 50 15
Bg2 50 45 5
Cd 60 30 10
Check Jose’s work and fill in the missing information. Do his results make
sense? Explain.
I found that the texture of the soil horizons is a silt loam. The ones that do
not show a silt loam are incorrect.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Jessica Ruggieri
Application Problem #2
Please read and follow the rules provided in the Assignment Instructions
You work at Silt, Sand and Beyond, LLC – an environmental consulting firm out
of Perryville, RI – where you hold the rank of Most Esteemed Soil Scientist (MESS, for
short). Since you are the only MESS in the company, they give you all the work that has
to do with soil. The latest project has you evaluating the soils at a site owned by Antonio
Flores, a housing developer. The site has three different soil series (Tables 1, 2 and 3),
found along a toposequence.
1. Your interwebs research has led you to believe that the Bernardston series is a
well-drained soil, yet the colors of the soil don’t seem to correspond to a well-
drained soil. A colleague tells you that it’s mostly due to the color of the parent
material from which the soil formed, which she thinks is phyllite.
What do you think?
2. Your intern, Jose Kardashian, analyzed the particle size distribution of all the soil
horizons using the hydrometer method. Unfortunately he had to leave before he
finished analyzing the data – he had a guest appearance in Duck Dynasty. Here’s
his data sheet:
Series Horizon Particle size
distribution (%)
Sand Silt Clay
Bernardston Ap 30 65 5
Bw1 35 60 5
Bw2 25 65 10
Cd1 35 40 25
Cd2 50 35 15
Stissing Ap 25 60 15
Bg 35 30 35
Cdg 35 60 5
Mansfield Oa ??? ??? ???
A 5 65 30
Bg1 35 50 15
Bg2 50 45 5
Cd 60 30 10
Check Jose’s work and fill in the missing information. Do his results make
sense? Explain.
I found that the texture of the soil horizons is a silt loam. The ones that do
not show a silt loam are incorrect.
