Groundwater

Groundwater represents a significant fraction of the mass of

water present at each time in the continents . It is housed in
the aquifers beneath the surface of the Earth. The volume of
groundwater is much more important than the mass of water
retained in Lakes or circulating, and although less than the
older glaciers, larger masses can reach millions of km2 (as the
guarani aquifer). The groundwater is an important resource
and this caters to a third of the world's population, 1 but
difficult to manage, because of his sensitivity to the pollution
and overexploitation.
Is a common belief that the groundwater fills cavities and
circulates through galleries. However, is not always true,
because it can be found occupying the interstices(pores and
cracks) of the soil, of the bedrock or the sediment unbound,
which contain it as a sponge. The only significant exception,
soluble rocks offer it as the limestone and gypsumsusceptible
to the process called karstification, where water dig simas,
cave and other roads, model that best fits the popular belief.
Aquifer:

Diagram of an aquifer.
An aquifer is that layer or permeable geological formation that
allows the movement and storage of groundwater by their
pores or cracks. Inside these formations can meet with varied

materials such as gravel River, limo , limestone very cracked,

sandstone porous little cemented, beach sands, some volcanic
formations and deposits of dunes and even certain types of
clay . The top level of the groundwater is called water table,
and in the case of a free aquifer, corresponds to the
groundwater .
Structure:
An aquifer is a rocky terrain permeable provisions under the
surface, where it accumulates and by where circulating
groundwater.
A zone of saturation , which is located on the top of the
impermeable layer, where the water completely fills the
pores of the rocks. The upper limit of this zone, which
separates it from the vadose zone or aeration and is the
water table varies according to the circumstances: in dry
times, when non-aquifer is recharging or does so at a
slower pace than their discharge; and rising, in humid
times.
A zone of aeration or vadose , is the space between the
groundwater and surface, where not all pores are filled with
water.
When the permeable rock where water accumulates is located
between two layers waterproof , you can have is u or not, we
saw that it was a captive or confined aquifer. In this case, the
water is subjected to a pressure greater than the atmospheric,
and if you drill the upper or outer coat of the ground, flows as
a supplier, type artesian well .

Types of aquifers:
According to their structure:

Types of aquifers.
From the point of view of its structure, has been that the
aquifers and the confined aquifers can be distinguished.
In the figure of the side are shown two types of aquifers:
River or Lake (a), in this case is the source of both
groundwater recharge.
unsaturated porous soil (b).
saturated porous soil (c), in which there is a litter of terrain
waterproof (d), formed, for example by clay , this
waterproof layer confined aquifer to lower dimensions.
floor waterproof (d).
unconfined aquifer (e).
spring (f);
well that captures water from the unconfined aquifer (g).
well that reaches the confined aquifer, frequently the water
gushes in a supplier or source, called artesian well (h).
According to its texture:

From the point of view of the textural are also divided into two
large groups: the porous and fisurales.
In porous aquifers groundwater is as embedded in a sponge
inside a few pores interconnected among themselves, whose
texture motivates that there is "permeability" (internal
transmission of water), against a simple storage. Although
clays have a maximum porosity and permeability
(permeability <>porosity) but a void transmission or storage.

As an example of porous aquifers, we have sand and alluvial

gravel formations
In fisurales aquifers, the water is located on cracks or joint ,
also connecting each other; but unlike porous aquifers, their
distribution that does internal flows of water behave in a
heterogeneous manner, by preferential directions. Main
representatives of the fissure type can citing to the karstic
aquifers.

According to their hydrodynamic behavior:

Finally, from a point of view hydrodynamic, water mobility, we

can call, in the strict sense:
Aquifers
Good stores and groundwater (quantity and speed)
transmitters (for example.-fisurales porous and calcareous
sands).
Acuitardos
Good stores but bad transmitters of groundwater (quantity but
slow) (eg-silt).
Acuicludos
They can be good stores, but null transmitters (e.g.-clays).
Acuifugos
They are zero as well as stores like transmitters. (eg.-granite
or quartzite not cracked).
According to their hydraulic behavior:
Aquifer underestimated or free
It is that aquifer that is in direct contact with the reagent area
of soil. In this aquifer water in the upper zone pressure is

equal to atmospheric pressure, increasing in depth as it

increases the saturated thickness.
Captive or confined aquifer
Are those in which the groundwater is enclosed between two
impermeable layers and is subjected to a pressure other than
atmospheric (top). Only receives rain in an area where there
are permeable materials, alien where the recharge area is
located away from the measuring point, and can be direct or
indirect depending on whether it is rain water that comes into
direct contact with an upwelling of groundwater, or
precipitation should pass through the different layers of soil
before being integrated into the groundwater. To the recharge
areas them can be called feeding areas. Due to the
impermeable layers enclosing the aquifer, never become
apparent native refills (a situation in which the water comes
from a situated on the aquifer recharge area), typical case of
semiconfined aquifers and the not confined or free (phreatic).
Semi-confinado aquifer
An aquifer is said semi-confinado when the layer of soil
covering it has a permeability significantly less of the same
aquifer, but not arriving to be waterproof, that through this
stratum is discharge and recharge can still occur.

Recharge:
Water from the soil is generally renewed by active processes
of recharge from the surface. The renewal occurs slowly when
compared with that of superficial deposits, such as lakes, and
waterways. Residence time (the period necessary to renew full
deposit at its normal renewal rate) is very long. In some cases,
the renewal is interrupted by the impermeability of the
superior geological formations (acuitardos), or by climatic
circumstances which have arisen from aridity .
In certain cases one speaks of fossil aquifers , these are
pockets of underground water, formed in the geological past,
and that, because of climatic variations they no longer
currently recharging.
Water of the precipitation (rain, snow,...) may have different
destinations and reaches the ground. It is divided into three
factions. He is called runoff to the part that slides over the
surface of the ground, first as BANYULS diffuse and later as
managed water, forming streams and rivers. Another part of
the water evaporates from the surface layers of the soil or
passes into the atmosphere with the sweat organisms,
especially the plants; we refer to this part as
evapotranspiration. Finally, another part seeps into the ground
and becomes groundwater.

The proportion of with respect to the total of rainfall infiltration

depends on several factors:
The lithology (the nature of the geological material that
flourishes and the surface) influences through its
permeability, which depends on the porosity, the join
(cracking) and the mineralogy of the substrate. For
example, the clay minerals hydrate easily, swelling is
always to some extent, resulting in a reduction of the
porosity that make waterproof substrate.
Another factor unfavorable to infiltration is one slope
marked.
The presence of dense vegetation influences of complex
form, because it reduces the water that reaches the soil
(interception), but extends in time the effect of rainfall,
slowly releasing water that wets the foliage, thus reducing
the fraction of runoff and increase infiltration. Another
favourable effect of the vegetation has to do with the roots,
especially the surface of many herbaceous plants and
dense roots, and the formation of soil, generally more
permeable than fresh rocks most.

The speed at which water moves depends on the volume of

the interstices (porosity) and the degree of
intercommunication between them. the two main parameters
that depend on the permeability . Aquifers are usually

sedimentary materials of relatively coarse (gravel, sand, silt,

etc.). If the pores are large enough, a part of the water
circulates freely through them driven by the gravity, but
another shall be fixed by the forces of the capillary and others
caused by interactions between her and the molecules
minerals .
Artificial recharge of aquifers, have been in some special
situations but this is not a generalized procedure, and is not
always possible. Before to consider the desirability of
proposing the artificial recharge of an aquifer is necessary to
have a very deep and detailed knowledge of the Hydrogeology
of the region where the aquifer is in question on the one hand
and by other means of the volume of water needed for such
an operation.

Transit:
One of them is the hypodermic flow or "interflow" is one that
circulates in shallow and fast way by certain permeable
formations of shallow, usually linked to River alveos
(subalveos aquifers); coming from a rapid infiltration, high
transmission speed (hydraulic conductivity), and a return to
the runway surface. So these flows more involved in the net
balance of surface waters (or surface run-off) which in
groundwater where it intervenes only as a transitional
balance. In this way, these flows usually go linked to the flow
in the River, giving sometimes the river the name of
intermittent runway, since what is observed in the river is that
it has sections with water and dry sections.

Transient medium, can also include linked to moist habitats,

flow type criptohumedal , where water, below the hypodermic
circuit, already circulates properly by the saturated zone of an
aquifer, and therefore belongs to the net balance of the
groundwater, in difference to the interflow of balance of
surface runoff. This transit favors the maintenance of plants
called "freatofilas", which are capable of sucking the layers
saturated more shallow aquifers, as extra water to the
captured of the outside soil.
Download:

Spring in Quellgebiet der Knster, bei Neuruppin, Germany

Groundwater wells (springs) naturally in different kinds of
upwelling on the slopes (Springs) and sometimes in relief
funds, always there where groundwater intersects the surface.
When there is no natural springs, ground water can be
accessed through of wells, holes that reach the aquifer and fill
partially with groundwater, always below the groundwater
level, which causes also a local depression. The water can be
removed by means of pumps. The water also moves through
the soil, usually following a direction parallel to the surface
drainage, and this results in a groundwater discharge to the

sea that is not observed on the surface, but that may be of

importance in the maintenance of the marine ecosystems .
Overexploitation:
Wells can dry out if the water level drops below its depth,
which occurs occasionally in years of drought, and for the
same reasons they can dry out springs. The charging regime
may alter due to other causes as the reforestation, which
favors against runoff infiltration, but even more favors
evaporation, or by extension of flooring waterproof, as
happens in urban and industrial areas.
The decline in average groundwater occurs whenever there is
an extraction continued water in the aquifer. However this
decline does not mean that the aquifer is over-exploited. What
happens normally is that groundwater is looking for a new
dimension of balance that stabilizes. Overexploitation occurs
when the total water withdrawals exceed recharge.
In some parts of the world the expansion of irrigation systems
and other activities that consume water has been at the
expense of aquifer whose recharge is slow or almost nonexistent. This has had some negative consequences such as
the drying of springs and wetlands or the en acuferos
costeros. En algunos casos la sobreexplotacin ha favorecido
la intrusin de agua salina por la proximidad de la costa,
provocando la salinizacin del agua e indirectamente la de los
suelos agrcolas.intrusin salina

Contamination of groundwater:
Groundwater tends to be sweet and drinking as the
underground circulation tends to purify the water particles and
microorganisms contaminants . However, sometimes these
become the aquifer by human activity, such as the
construction of fosas septic or the agriculture. On the other
hand contamination may be due to natural factors, if the
aquifers are too rich in dissolved salts or the erosion native of
certain rock formations.
Contamination of groundwater can remain for long periods of
time. This is due to the low rate of renewal and long
residence, since groundwater may not apply you easily
artificial processes of purification as which can be applied to
the surface deposits, because of its difficult access. In the
case of local areas of contamination can be aquifer
remediation using the technique of pumping and treatment,
which is to extract water from the aquifer, treating it
chemically, and inject it back into the aquifer.
Causes anthropogenic (caused by humans), due to the
contamination include the infiltration of nitrates and other
chemical fertilizers very soluble used in agriculture. These
tend to be a serious cause of contamination of supplies in
Plains of dense population and high agricultural productivity.
Other sources of contaminants are discharges from factories,
agricultural products and chemicals used by people in their
homes and yards. Contaminants may also come from storage
tanks of water, septic, hazardous waste sites and sites.
Currently, contaminants of the groundwater that more
concern (?) are industrial organic compounds, such as
solvents, ,, varnishespaints pesticides, or fuels as the gasoline
.
In terms of the chemical fertilizers, the nitrates are those who
generate greater concern. These originate from different
sources: application of fertilizer, septic tanks that are not
functioning well, the lagoons of solid waste not waterproofed
below and infiltration of waste water or treated. Nitrate

poisoning is dangerous in children. At high levels, can limit the

ability of the blood to transport oxygen, causing asphyxia in
infants. In the digestive tract nitrate is reduced to produce
nitrites, which are carcinogenic.

Groundwater in coastal areas may become contaminated by

intrusion of sea water Saline intrusion () when the extraction
rate is very high. This causes the seawater from entering
freshwater aquifers. This problem can be treated with changes
in the location of the wells or excavating others who maintain
the saltwater from the freshwater aquifer. In any case, while
the extraction exceeds the recharge by fresh water, salt water
contamination remains a possibility.
An example of groundwater pollution is that occurs in the
lower Valley of the Ganges . There is given a severe case of
contamination by arsenic that is causing chronic intoxication
to tens of millions of people, hopeless until now. The cause of
this pollution, is the combination of an anthropogenic factor,
organic pollution linked to the intensification of irrigation and
a natural factor. A strain bacterial soil releases arsenic that
remained before retained in the rock due to the new
conditions.