What is Kingfisher soil and how does it affect Oklahoma foundations?

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

In short: Kingfisher is a well-drained soil of north-central Oklahoma that formed from Permian red-bed silty shale. Its subsoil is silty clay loam or clay loam with 27 to 42 percent clay, and weathered siltstone, shale and sandstone begin 20 to 40 inches down. Moderate clay over fairly shallow weathered rock is the main soil setting for foundations on Kingfisher.

Where does Kingfisher soil occur?

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Official Series Description (OSD) places Kingfisher in Oklahoma and probably south-central Kansas, in Major Land Resource Area 80A, the Central Rolling Red Prairies ¹. It is of moderate extent ¹. The type location is in Kingfisher County about 1 mile west and 5 miles south of the town of Kingfisher ¹.

Kingfisher forms on uplands with slopes of 0 to 8 percent ¹. Its parent material is loamy material weathered from Permian silty shale red beds ¹, the red rocks described on the Hennessey Shale page. Kingfisher County sits in the North-Central (Red Prairies and Wheat Belt) region, northwest of the OKC metro.

What are its key properties?

"Argiustolls" are prairie soils with a dark topsoil over a clay-enriched subsoil. Kingfisher is mainly cropland, especially winter wheat, and native vegetation was tallgrass prairie ¹.

What do the properties mean for foundations?

Clay in the subsoil

Clay soils swell (heave) when they gain water and shrink (settle) when they dry, and uneven moisture causes more damage than uniform moisture ⁴. Kingfisher's clay rises from 27 to 35 percent in the upper subsoil to as much as 42 percent lower down ¹. NRCS classes linear extensibility (LEP) under 3 percent as low, 3 to 6 percent moderate, 6 to 9 percent high and 9 percent or more very high ³. Web Soil Survey lists the LEP for each Kingfisher map unit ². Related patterns: perimeter drying settlement and perimeter wetting heave.

Weathered rock at 20 to 40 inches

The Cr layer is paralithic bedrock, meaning weathered rock that is softer than hard bedrock, made of interbedded siltstone, shale and sandstone ¹. How these layers behave as bearing material is covered in shale weathering and bearing strata and depth to rock from borings.

Drought and soil moisture

The Oklahoma Mesonet measures soil moisture at 2, 4, 10 and 24 inches at most sites, and changes at different depths show how deeply rain penetrates ⁵. Wetting and drying of clay is what moves shallow foundations up and down ⁴; see Mesonet for foundation pros.

What should you know about a Kingfisher lot?

• Look up the map unit, depth to bedrock and LEP in Web Soil Survey ².
• Keep soil moisture next to the foundation as even as practical, and grade soil away from the house ⁴.
• Repair leaks quickly and track existing cracks over time ⁴.

Related

• Grant soil
• Bethany soil
• Hennessey Shale (Group)
• Shrink-Swell and Active Zone
• Soil Series Index