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

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

In short: Talihina is a shallow clay soil of eastern Oklahoma that sits on soft Pennsylvanian shale only 10 to 20 inches below the surface. It is poorly drained, water moves through it slowly, and it can hold a perched water table in winter and spring. On Talihina lots, the shallow shale, wet-season water and the clay content are the main foundation factors.

Where does Talihina soil occur?

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) keeps an Official Series Description (OSD) for each named soil. The Talihina OSD lists the series in eastern Oklahoma, southeastern Kansas and southwestern Missouri, and calls it extensive ¹. Its type location is in Hughes County, about 2 miles east of Holdenville ¹.

Talihina forms on smooth ridge crests and side slopes of sloping to steep dissected uplands in the Cherokee Prairies (Major Land Resource Area 112), on slopes of 5 to 30 percent ¹. It developed in clayey material weathered from soft Pennsylvanian shale with thin sandstone and siltstone layers ¹, part of the East-Central (Arkoma) landscape. Most of it is native tallgrass range ¹.

What are its key properties?

"Bw" means a weakly developed subsoil layer; Talihina has no clay-enriched "Bt" layer. The soft rock at its base is a "paralithic contact," rock that is weakly cemented rather than hard ¹.

Soils on lower slopes nearby include Dennis and Eram, and smooth ridges carry Bates, Collinsville and Coweta ¹.

What do its properties mean for foundations?

Clay content

Talihina's surface layer has 35 to 55 percent clay and its subsoil 35 to 40 percent ¹. The OSD does not record deep cracks or slickensides for Talihina; it notes only a few pressure faces ¹. NRCS rates shrink-swell by linear extensibility, from low (under 3 percent) to very high (more than 9 percent), and anything above 3 percent can damage buildings ³. The rated value for any map unit is in Web Soil Survey ². The Oklahoma Geological Survey notes that soils weathered from shale can contain montmorillonite, a clay that swells when wet ⁴.

Shallow, soft shale

With soft shale 10 to 20 inches down ¹, footings on Talihina can bear on or near weathered rock. Clay-rich shale can itself contain swelling montmorillonite ⁴, so its condition at depth matters for both footings and piers; see shale weathering and bearing strata.

Wet seasons and slopes

Poor drainage, slow permeability and a perched water table mean water collects in and above the soil from late fall into spring ¹. That pattern relates to crawl space moisture and wood decay and to water pressure on below-grade walls. Runoff on Talihina is moderate to very high ¹. The ASCE homeowner guide recommends at least 3 inches of fall over the first 5 feet from the house and downspouts that discharge at least 3 feet out ⁵. Uneven wetting along one side of a house can cause perimeter wetting heave ⁵.

Related

• Groundwater and perched water
• Surface drainage and grading
• Crawl space encapsulation
• Soil Series Index