HomeSoil seriesCanisteo
Canisteo soil series
Canisteo soils cover 1,836,431 mapped acres, mostly in Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota. USDA rates shrink-swell a limit for houses without basements on 0% of that land, and a shallow water table a limit for basements on 100%.
It is the leading soil series by area in 13 of the counties and cities on this site, including Humboldt County, IA; Redwood County, MN; Martin County, MN.
SSURGO survey versions to August 5, 2026 · series description revised 2015-06
of its land: shrink-swell limits houses without basements
of its land: a shallow water table limits basements
median highest linear extensibility (6% and up is high)
median highest clay content in the top 150 cm
USDA's description
The Canisteo series consists of very deep, poorly and very poorly drained soils that formed in calcareous, loamy till or in a thin mantle of loamy or silty sediments and the underlying calcareous, loamy till. These soils are on rims of depressions, depressions and flats on moraines or till plains. Slope ranges from 0 to 2 percent. Mean air annual temperature is about 9 degrees C. Mean annual precipitation is about 785 millimeters.
Source: USDA NRCS series description (OSD) for Canisteo, revised 2015-06. Read it.
Engineering properties
| Mapped area (SSURGO) | 1,836,431 acres |
| Shrink-swell limits houses without basements | 0.0% |
| Shallow water table limits basements | 100.0% |
| Very limited for septic absorption fields | 100.0% |
| Most common drainage class | Poorly drained |
| Most common hydrologic soil group | C/D |
| Taxonomic class | Fine-loamy, mixed, superactive, calcareous, mesic Typic Endoaquolls |
| Type location | Major Land Resource Area (MLRA) 103-Central Iowa and Minnesota Till Prairies, Waseca County, Minnesota subset |
Where Canisteo is mapped
| State | Mapped acres |
|---|---|
| Iowa | 969,939 |
| Minnesota | 865,013 |
| South Dakota | 1,479 |
Places where Canisteo leads
Counties and cities where Canisteo covers more mapped land than any other series.
| Place | Share of mapped land |
|---|---|
| Humboldt County, IA | 24% |
| Redwood County, MN | 20% |
| Martin County, MN | 17% |
| Sibley County, MN | 17% |
| Kossuth County, IA | 16% |
| Hamilton County, IA | 15% |
| Hancock County, IA | 14% |
| McLeod County, MN | 13% |
| Wright County, IA | 13% |
| Nicollet County, MN | 10% |
| Lyon County, MN | 10% |
| Faribault County, MN | 9% |
| Kandiyohi County, MN | 8% |
Other places where Canisteo is a main soil
Counties and cities where Canisteo is among the six soil series covering the most mapped land, but not the first. Share of the place's mapped land.
Counties
- Boone County, IA 18%
- Pocahontas County, IA 17%
- Palo Alto County, IA 16%
- Emmet County, IA 15%
- Yellow Medicine County, MN 15%
- Winnebago County, IA 14%
- Calhoun County, IA 14%
- Greene County, IA 12%
- Dallas County, IA 11%
- Brown County, MN 11%
- Watonwan County, MN 11%
- Renville County, MN 10%
- Buena Vista County, IA 10%
- Webster County, IA 9%
- Story County, IA 9%
- Jackson County, MN 7%
- Waseca County, MN 6%
- Polk County, IA 6%
- Steele County, MN 6%
- Freeborn County, MN 5%
- Cottonwood County, MN 4%
- Dickinson County, IA 4%
Sources
Shares and properties: USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access, weighted by each component's share of its map units. Description: the USDA NRCS series description. How we count.