What soil types are in the Oklahoma City metro?

Reviewed by Preston, Oklahoma foundation repair consultant · Updated 2026-10-14

In short: Soils around Oklahoma City mostly formed from Permian-age red shale, claystone and sandstone. Clay-rich series such as Renfrow and Kirkland shrink and swell strongly with moisture changes, while sandy series such as Dougherty and Lucien move much less. Knowing the mapped soil series is a starting point, but lots are often regraded, so the actual soil under a house has to be checked on site.

How is a soil series description read?

A soil series is a named soil type that the USDA describes in an Official Series Description (OSD): its layers, clay content, drainage and parent material (the rock or sediment it formed from). OSDs don't give a single "shrink-swell rating," but several details point to it:

• Clay content: higher clay usually means more volume change.
• Slickensides: polished, grooved surfaces inside clay layers that form when clay repeatedly swells and shrinks.
• Vertic properties and cracks: deep seasonal cracking, a hallmark of strongly expansive clay.
• Depth to rock: a "paralithic contact" is soft, weathered rock that a shovel can still dig; "densic" material is very dense soil-like material.

What are the major OKC metro soil series?

Clay-rich series

Renfrow has vertic properties, with cracks at least 5 mm wide within about 4 feet of the surface for part of most years, and slickensides in the subsoil ¹. Kirkland has intersecting slickensides in its subsoil ². Renfrow's type location is in Kay County and Kirkland's is in Logan County, both in Oklahoma ¹².

An Oklahoma State University study of benchmark soils found Kirkland's subsoil liquid limit exceeded 50% with high plasticity indices and described it as highly expansive, with a severe rating for low buildings ⁸. Bethany, whose type location is in Oklahoma County near Wheatland, had moderate shrink-swell in its subsoil ³⁸.

Shallow-rock and sandy series

Vernon is a red clay over dense claystone at 20–40 inches and is described as very sticky and plastic ⁴. Zaneis, with a type location north of Edmond, is loamier and reaches soft rock at 40–60 inches ⁵. Lucien is shallow, with rippable sandstone at 10–20 inches ⁶. Dougherty formed in sandy, dune-like terrace deposits and is well drained ⁷.

The same OSU study found that sandy soils with little plasticity had low shrink-swell and good ratings as building sites ⁸.

Other sandstone soils in the metro follow the same pattern of loamy soil over Permian sandstone. Darnell, with a type location west of Tryon in Lincoln County, reaches sandstone at 10–20 inches on summits and shoulders of low hills ¹⁰. Stephenville, with a type location near Spencer in Oklahoma County, reaches sandstone at 20–40 inches ⁹. Chickasha averages 18–30% clay and sits over weakly cemented sandstone at 40–60 inches ¹⁷. Kingfisher formed in Permian silty shale red beds, averages 27–35% clay and reaches soft rock at 20–40 inches ¹⁵.

Terrace and flood-plain series

Along streams, some soils formed in water-laid sediment rather than in rock ^111213141618:

• Old terraces. Norge (Pleistocene loamy alluvium, silty clay loam to silty clay subsoil), Teller and Konawa (each 18–30% clay in the subsoil, more than 80 inches deep) are well drained terrace soils ¹³¹⁴¹⁶.
• Flood plains. Port, a calcareous loamy soil with a type location east of Chickasha, and Pulaski, a sandier loamy soil, are both occasionally or frequently flooded for very brief periods from March to October ¹¹¹². Dale, with a type location east of Harrah, lies on flood plains of minor streams ¹⁸.

What does this mean for foundations?

• Clay-rich series are the ones most associated with perimeter settlement in drought and heave when they rewet.
• Where soft rock is shallow, as in Lucien and Vernon, the depth of soil that can change volume is limited by the rock below.
• The underlying rock units are described on the Hennessey Shale and Garber Sandstone pages.

Soil maps show the dominant soil in an area, but map units include patches of other soils and urban lots are often cut or filled. Hand-auger samples or borings confirm what is actually under a slab; see soil testing and lab values.

Related

• R - OKC Metro
• Bedrock - OKC Metro
• Soil - Renfrow
• Soil - Kirkland
• Soil Series Index
• Shrink-Swell and Active Zone