Quarter-Quarter Section, PLSS Definition

A quarter-quarter section is the smallest standard aliquot division in the PLSS hierarchy. It is formed by applying the same halving process to a quarter section that was used to create the quarter section from the full section. Each of the four resulting parcels contains approximately 40 acres and is identified by two compass designations: the position within the quarter section, followed by the quarter section itself.

The notation for a quarter-quarter section places the smaller unit first: "NENW" means the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter. Reading this description, you start at the section level, identify the northwest quarter (160 acres in the northwest corner), then identify the northeast quarter of that parcel (40 acres in the northeast corner of the northwest quarter). The actual parcel is in the north-center area of the section.

Forty acres became culturally significant in American history as the smallest practical farm size and the unit promised — but rarely delivered — in proposals to provide land to formerly enslaved people after the Civil War. In the oil and gas industry, mineral rights are frequently conveyed, leased, or pooled at the quarter-quarter section level because it represents a manageable unit for production unit calculations.

A section can contain sixteen quarter-quarter sections: four quarter sections, each divided into four quarter-quarter sections. When describing a parcel at this level, the full description includes all four levels: "NESW 14 5N 3W 6th Meridian." In survey and title work, quarter-quarter sections are the routine working unit — the level at which most individual residential and agricultural parcels are identified before they are further subdivided into platted lots.