USDA · SSURGO · Soil Data Access

America's Soil,
Mapped & Queryable

300,000+ soil components. 3,143 counties. 254 SQL scripts. One open platform connecting the nation's most comprehensive soil database to interactive maps, data journalism, and conservation science.

Open Soil Atlas → Regen Ag Risk Map Read Data Stories
0K
Soil Components
Mapped across US
0
Counties Mapped
All 50 states + territories
0
SQL Scripts
Production-ready
NV 0.50
Most Fragile State
Mean FSI score
AZ 88%
OM Depletion Risk
Highest state mean
Interactive Applications

Three ways to explore
the same data

From full-screen interactive maps to scroll-driven data journalism, each application reveals a different dimension of the SSURGO soil database.

Split-screen comparison map
Regenerative Ag Risk Map
Side-by-side county-level Fragile Soil Index vs. Organic Matter Depletion. 3D terrain, PMTiles polygon detail, live SDA queries.
Open Map →
5-mode intelligence explorer
Soil Intelligence Explorer
Click any county for animated horizon bars, texture triangle, NCCPI gauge, Munsell colors, and live SDA soil profile. 5 discovery story modes.
Open Atlas →
Scroll-driven data journalism
The World Beneath
7 chapters. Soil carbon banks, drought architecture, the fragility crisis, and unexpected science — morel mushrooms, baseball infield soil, karst sinkhole risk, all from real SSURGO data.
Read Stories →
Real Data · Right Now

Three stories from
real SSURGO data

Every number below comes from the SSURGO soil database — aggregated from county surveys across 56 states and territories, queried directly via the SDA REST API.

Fragile Soil Index — Top 12 States
Nevada leads at 0.50
Mean FSI score from soil surveys. Higher = more fragile, more erosion-prone, higher conservation need.
Soil Carbon Stock — Dane County WI
3,327 g/m² total profile
Horizon-by-horizon organic carbon calculated from OM%, bulk density, thickness, and fragment correction.
Formula: (Hz_cm × (OM/1.724 × Db)/100) × (1−frag/100) × compPct
Conservation Carbon Math
–0.22 t CO₂eq/acre/yr
GHG reduction rates from land management. Land Decisions per year.
What the Database Knows

Unexpected science
in the SQL scripts

254 production SQL scripts span far beyond conventional soil science. These are a few of the stories waiting inside SSURGO.

🍄
Morel Mushroom Habitat
Exact soil chemistry — sand, silt, OM, pH, drainage — that predicts where morels fruit. Queryable for any map unit in the US.
Sand 30–80% · Silt 30–50%
Clay 8–25% · OM 2.8–5%
pH 6.0–7.5 · Well drained
⚾
Baseball Infield Soil
The precise sand content, silt-to-clay ratio, and medium-sand fraction that defines a legal infield mix exists in SSURGO and can be queried nationwide.
Sand 60–65% · Silt:Clay 0.75–1
Med-sand fraction ≥ 50%
🕳️
Karst Sinkhole Risk
Probability scoring from parent material origin and soil taxonomy. Where limestone dissolves beneath your feet.
Residuum limestone = 0.5
+ karst local phase = 0.8
Rock gypsum / halite = 1.0
🌽
NCCPI Food Score
The National Commodity Crop Productivity Index scores every soil's ability to grow corn and soybeans from 0–100. The Corn Belt's agricultural destiny, encoded.
Fargo Clay ND = 87
Arizona desert = 3
Range: 0–100 per map unit
💧
Drought Resilience
Available Water Storage measures plant-available water held in soil from 0–150 cm depth. The hydraulic buffer that saved crops in 2012.
Fine loam: 10.0" (0–150 cm)
0–20 cm: 1.6" · 20–50: 2.4"
50–100: 3.2" · 100–150: 2.8"
🌾
Mollisol Prairies
The great dark prairie soils of the Midwest — formed over millennia under native grasslands — hold the world's deepest organic matter profiles. Queryable by taxonomy.
taxorder = 'mollisols'
majcompflag = 'Yes'
22% of US cropland acres
SQL as Storytelling

The queries behind
the science

Every map, chart, and discovery in this project starts as a SQL query against SSURGO's 150+ table schema. These are four of the most powerful.

Fragile Soil Index · Dominant Condition
Which soils are breaking down under management?
Returns the dominant condition fragility class per county survey area — the core query behind the Regen Ag Risk Map and Soil Atlas layer 1.
SELECT mu.musym, mu.muname,
  -- dominant condition fragility class
  (SELECT TOP 1 ci.interphrc
   FROM component c
   INNER JOIN cointerp ci ON ci.cokey=c.cokey
   WHERE ci.mrulename='Fragile Soil Index'
     AND ci.ruledepth=0
     AND c.majcompflag='Yes'
   ORDER BY c.comppct_r DESC) AS fsi_class
FROM legend l
INNER JOIN mapunit mu ON mu.lkey=l.lkey
WHERE l.areasymbol='IA001'
Soil Organic Carbon · Horizon by Horizon
Where is the carbon stored — and how deep?
The definitive SOC calculation: organic matter converted to carbon via Van Bemmelen factor, weighted by bulk density, horizon thickness, and rock fragment correction.
-- SOC per horizon [g/m²]
ROUND(
  (((hzdepb_r - hzdept_r)
    * ((om_r / 1.724) * dbthirdbar_r))
   / 100.0)
  * ((100.0 - fragvol) / 100.0)
  * (comppct_r * 100), 3
) AS HZ_SOC
NCCPI · Normalized Productivity Index
Which soils feed America — scored 0 to 100?
Joins SSURGO cointerp to compute the National Commodity Crop Productivity Index per map unit, normalized within each MLRA using 20 equal productivity breakpoints.
SELECT mu.mukey, mu.muname,
  (SELECT MAX(interphr)
   FROM component c
   INNER JOIN cointerp ci
     ON ci.cokey=c.cokey
   WHERE ci.mrulename LIKE
     'NCCPI%Ver 3.0%'
     AND ci.ruledepth=1
  ) AS NCCPI_score
FROM mapunit mu
GHG Reduction · Soil Carbon · Land Use
How many tons of CO₂ does land management generally reduce?
Joins chorizon emission factors to applied acres by land class — building a county-level GHG ledger tied to soil and land use rather than program tracking.
SELECT
  land_class,
  SUM(Applied_Amount) AS acres,
  SUM(avg_co2_mean * Applied_Amount)
    AS total_co2_reduction,
  SUM(avg_n2o_mean * Applied_Amount)
    AS total_n2o_reduction
FROM #chorizon_agg_lite
GROUP BY land_class, state_abbr
Conservation Planning · CART · CEAP

Production Planning
SQL Scripts

Full-scale conservation planning queries — CART regenerative ag scoring and CEAP Grazing Lands soil properties — converted to SDA macro syntax and ready to run.

CART · Generalized Resource Assessment · FY22
Regenerative Ag Class Scoring by Landunit
CART full query: scores Cropland Regenerative Ag (CS), Organic Matter Depletion (OMD), and Hydric (HYD) indices from SSURGO using pAOI geometry macros — returns Class 1–3 ratings per land unit.
~DeclareGeometry(@aoiGeom)~
~DeclareGeometry(@aoiGeomFixed)~
~DeclareChar(@attributeName,60)~
SELECT LRC.landunit,
  LRC.attributename AS rating_name,
  LRC.rating_value,
  LRC.rating_class
FROM #LandunitRatingsCART
View in Explorer → Source Repo ↗
CEAP Grazing Lands · SDA Macro Syntax
Comprehensive Grazing Land Soil Properties
CEAP Grazing Lands full query converted to SDA macros — returns surface horizon texture, structure, flooding, water table, restrictions, AWS, and ACPF attributes for a state or survey area.
~DeclareVarchar(@area,20)~
~DeclareInt(@domc)~
~DeclareInt(@major)~
SELECT @area = 'AR097';
-- 0=dominant, 1=all components
SELECT @domc = 1;
View in Explorer → Source Repo ↗
Soil Facts