Check out Soil Map for online information related to Soils.  SoilMap is an online, interactive web-based program that allows anyone with a computer and internet access to learn more about Pennsylvania soils. SoilMap is a collaborative effort between the Pennsylvania State Cooperative Extension Geospatial Technology Program, Land Analysis Lab, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and PASDA.   This program allows you to highlight an area and identify specific soil characteristics that would have been previously found in a County's Soil Survey.

For more detailed information on soils see the newly created WEB SOIL SURVEY, which was developed by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S.D.A.  This web based tool includes all available data originally printed in the individual County's Soil Survey with the ease of site identification through the use of Latitude and Longitude coordinates.  The page allows anyone to create and print maps using the most recent aerial photography.

The Story of Blair County Soils (abstract from Soil Survey of Blair County, Pennsylvania)

 Physiography and Geology

            The majority of the county is in the Valley and Ridge physiographic province; the western third is in the Appalachian Plateau physiographic province. The Valley and Ridge province forms a series of parallel valleys and ridges oriented northeast-southwest, while the Appalachian Plateau province has high, rounded ridges and stream-dissected valleys. click here to continue

The Story of Blair County Soils (abstract from Soil Survey of Blair County, Pennsylvania)

 Physiography and Geology

            The majority of the county is in the Valley and Ridge physiographic province; the western third is in the Appalachian Plateau physiographic province. The Valley and Ridge province forms a series of parallel valleys and ridges oriented northeast-southwest, while the Appalachian Plateau province has high, rounded ridges and stream-dissected valleys. The elevation in the county ranges from a high of about 3,000 feet in the southwest corner to a low of 720 feet where the Juniata River crosses into Huntington County .

            Rocks of Pennsylvanian and Mississippian age are the youngest in the county and outcrop in the Appalachian Plateau province. They are composed primarily of a cyclic sequence of shale, siltstone, sandstone, and some limestone and coal. The dominant soils in this area are of the Laidig-Hazleton-Clymer association.

            The oldest rocks in the county are in the Valley and Ridge province. The more resistant Ordovician and Silurian quartzites, sandstones, conglomerates, and shales form the ridges and slopes in the province. The soils of the Laidig-Hazleton-Buchanan association are dominant on the ridges.

            The Tuscarora formation (quartzite sandstone) caps several prominent ridge tops in the county-the Bald Eagle, Brush, and Canoe Mountains in the north and central parts of the county and the Lock, Loop , and Dunning Mountains in the southern part. Soils of the Laidig-Hazleton-Buchanan association dominate these areas.

            The Nittany Valley , the Canoe Valley , and Morrison Cove are underlain by Cambrian and Ordovician limestone and dolomite. The major soils in these areas are of the Hublersburg-Murrill-Opequon and Edom-Opequon associations. The long, narrow valley running nearly the full length of the county from Tyrone to Hollidaysburg is composed of Silurian limestone and Devonian shale. The Morrison association is dominant over limestone, and the Berks-Brinkerton-Weikert association is dominant over shale. The Basher-Monongahela-Purdy association is on flood plains and terraces in this area. Between the valley and the Allegheny Front lies a band of Devonian shale that also runs the full length of the county. The major soils in this band are in the Leck Kill-Meckesville-Albrights association and the Berks-Brinkerton-Weikert association.

            Regional uplift and compression from the southeast during the Permian period caused intense folding and faulting of rocks in the Valley and Ridge province and caused only a regional northwest dip of bedding in the Appalachian Plateau province. The majority of the faulting occurred in the limestone valley near the eastern border. The structural disturbance resulted in the formation of the northeast-southwest oriented valleys and ridges. Erosion over the course of 200 million years has severely reduced the mountains to their present topography.

Mineral Resources

            Deposits of limestone, sandstone, shale, clay, and coal provide most of the mineral resources in the county.  All mining is done by quarrying, open-pit, or strip-mining methods.

            Limestone is mined from the Cambrian and Ordovician formations in the valleys of the central and southern parts of the county. It is mainly used for aggregate and agricultural lime.  Sandstone, used in the production of crushed and broken stone, is mined from Silurian quartzite in the southern part of the county. Middle Devonian sandstone is mined for construction sand and gravel in an area east of Hollidaysburg.

            Deposits of clay and shale of Pennsylvanian and Devonian age are mined in the western, central, and southern parts of the county. This material is used primarily for fill, road building, and refractories.

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