Occurrence of Groundwater

Groundwater

Groundwater is water that exists in the pore spaces and fractures in rocks and
sediments beneath the Earths surface. It originates as rainfall or snow, and then
moves through the soil and rock into the groundwater system, where it eventually
makes its way back to the surface streams, lakes, or oceans.

To understand the ways in which groundwater occurs, it is needed to think about the
ground and the water properties.
Porosity, which is the property of a rock possessing pores or voids.
Saturated and unsaturated zones.
Permeability, which is the ease with which water can flow through the rock.
Aquifer, which is a geologic formation sufficiently porous to store water and
permeable enough to allow water to flow through them in economic quantities.
Storage coefficient, which is the volume of water that an aquifer releases from or
takes into storage per unit surface area of aquifer per unit change in the component
of area normal to surface.

Origin and age of groundwater

Juvenile water
Meteoric water
Connate water
Magmatic water
Metamorphic water
Oceanic water

Origin and age of groundwater

Radioisotopes is being used to determine the age of groundwater.
Hydrogen-3 (tritium) and carbon-14
Radioisotope begins to decay as a function of time, such that
A = Aoe-t
Where, A = observed radioactivity
Ao = activity at the time the water entered the aquifer,
= decay constant
t = age of the water
Carbon -14 has a half life of 5730 years and is also produced at an established
constant level in the atmosphere.
This isotope is present in groundwater as dissolved bicarbonate originating
from the biologically active layers of the soil where CO2 is generated by root
respiration and the decay of humus.
Tritium is applicable for up to 50 years of age of groundwater.
C-14 spans the age bracket of a several hundred to about 50000 years.

Vertical Distribution of groundwater

Aquifer
Aquifer: It may be defined as a formation that contains sufficient
saturated permeable material to yield significant quantities of water to
wells and springs.
Aquifers are generally aerially extensive and may be overlain or underlain
by a confining bed, which may be defined as a relatively impermeable
material stratigraphically adjacent to one or more aquifers.
The following properties of the aquifer are required for study of
groundwater hydrology:
1. Porosity
2. Specific Yield
3. Specific Retention
4. Coefficient of permeability
5. Transmissibility
6. Specific Storage
7. Storage Coefficient

Porosity
Porosity (n) is the percentage of rock or soil that is
void of material. The larger the pore space or the
greater their number, the higher the porosity and the
larger the water-holding capacity.
In sediments or sedimentary rocks the porosity
depends on grain size, the shape of the grains, the
degree of sorting and the degree of cementation.
In rocks, the porosity depends upon the extent,
spacing and pattern of cracks and fractures.

Porosity

a) Well-sorted sedimentary deposit having high porosity. (b) Poorly sorted sedimentary
deposit having low porosity. (c) Well-sorted sedimentary deposit consisting of pebbles that
are themselves porous, so that the deposit as a whole has a very high porosity. (d) Wellsorted sedimentary deposit whose porosity has been diminished by the deposition of
mineral matter in the interstices. (e) Rock rendered porous by solution. (f) Rock rendered
porous by fracturing

Specific yield
Specific yield (Sy) is the ratio of the volume of water that
drains from a saturated rock owing to the attraction of gravity
(or by pumping from wells) to the total volume of the
saturated aquifer. It is defined mathematically by the
equation:

where,
Vw is the volume of water in a unit volume of earth materials
(L3, cm3 or m3)
V is the unit volume of earth material, including both voids
and solids (L3, cm3 or m3

Specific retention
Specific retention (Sr) is the ratio of the volume of water that
cannot be drained out to the total volume of the saturated
aquifer. Since the specific yield represents the volume of
water that a rock will yield by gravity drainage, hence the
specific retention is the remainder.
The specific yield and specific retention depend upon the
shape and size of particle, distribution of pores (voids), and
compaction of the formation.
The specific retention increases with decreasing grain size.

Types of Aquifer

Types of Aquifer
Unconfined Aquifer. An unconfined aquifer is one in
which a water table varies in undulating form and in
slope, depending on areas of recharge and discharge,
pump from wells, and permeability.
Confined Aquifers. Confined aquifers, also known as
artesian or pressure aquifers, occur where
groundwater is confined under pressure greater than
atmospheric by overlying relatively impermeable
strata.

Types of Aquifer

Types of Aquifer
Leaky Aquifer or semi-confined, aquifers. Where a
permeable stratum is overlain or underlain by a semipervious aquitard or semiconfining layer. Pumping from a
well in a leaky aquifer removes water in two ways: by
horizontal flow within the aquifer and by vertical flow
through the aquitard into the aquifer
Aquitard. An aquitard is a partly permeable geologic
formation. It transmits water at such a slow rate that the
yield is insufficient. Pumping by wells is not possible. For
example, sand lenses in a clay formation will form an
aquitard.

Types of Aquifer
Aquiclude. An aquiclude is composed of rock or sediment that
acts as a barrier to groundwater flow. Aquicludes are made up
of low porosity and low permeability rock/sediment such as
shale or clay. Aquicludes have normally good storage capacity
but low transmitting capacity.
Aquifuge An aquifuge is a geologic formation which doesnt
have interconnected pores. It is neither porous nor
permeable. Thus, it can neither store water nor transmit it.
Examples of aquifuge are rocks like basalt, granite, etc.
without fissures.

Water Table and Piezometric Surface

Water table is the surface of water level in an
unconfined aquifer at which the pressure is
atmospheric. It is the level at which the water will
stand in a well drilled in an unconfined aquifer
The piezometric surface is an imaginary surface to
which the water level would rise if a piezometer was
inserted in the aquifer.

Water Table and Piezometric Surface

Coefficient of Permeability (Hydraulic

conductivity) (K)
permeability (K) is equal to the discharge (m3/s) per
unit area (m2) of soil mass under unit hydraulic
gradient.

Transmissivity (T)
Transmissivity (T) is the discharge rate at which
water is transmitted through a unit width of an
aquifer under a unit hydraulic gradient.
T = Kh (unconfined aquifer)
T = Kb (confined aquifer)

Specific Storage (Ss)

Specific Storage (Ss) is the amount of water per unit volume
of a saturated formation that is stored or expelled from
storage owing to compressibility of the mineral skeleton and
the pore water per unit change in head. This is also called the
elastic storage coefficient.
= g( + n)
Where is the density of the water (M/L3; Kg/m3)
g is the acceleration of gravity (L/T2; m/s2)
is the compressibility of the aquifer skeleton (1/(M/LT2);
m2/N)
n is the porosity
is the compressibility of water (1/(M/LT2); m2/N)

Storage Coefficient (S)

Storage coefficient (S). The volume of water given by a unit
prism of aquifer when the piezometric surface or the water
table drops by unit depth is called storage coefficientof the
aquifer.
It is the same as the volume of water taken into storage, per
unit of aquifer storage area per unit change in head.
The storage coefficient is also called Storativity.
In unconfined aquifers, Storativity is the same as the specific
yield of the aquifer.
Storage coefficient normally varies directly with aquifer
thickness

The specific yield and storage

coefficient
The specific yield and storage coefficient value have to be
determined for the aquifer in order to make estimate of the
changes in the ground water storage due to fluctuation in the
GWT or piezometric surface from the relation:
GWS = x GWT or p.s. x S or
Where GWS = change in ground water storage
= Involved area of the aquifer

GWT or p.s. = fluctuation in GWT or p.s.

Storage Coefficient (S)

Problem
In a certain alluvial basin of 100 km2, 90 M.m3 of ground
water was pumped in a year and the ground water table
dropped by about 5 m during the year. Assuming no
replenishment, estimate the specific yield of the aquifer. If the
specific retention is 12%, what is the porosity of the soil?
An artesian aquifer 30m thick has a porosity of 25% and bulk
modulus of compression 2000 kg/cm2. estimate the storage
coefficient of the aquifer. What fraction of this is attributable
to the expansibility of water? Bulk modulus of elasticity of
water = 2.4 x 104 kg/2

Darcys Law
Darcys Law : In 1856 in Dijon, France, Henry Darcy conducted
his now famous experiment of pouring water through
sediment-packed pipes to see how much would flow through
them in a given amount of time.
The velocity of flow in a porous medium is proportional to the
hydraulic gradient.
V = Ki ;

i=

Q = AV = Aki , A = Wb,
Q = wbki or Tiw

T= kb

Darcys Law

spring
Springs:
A spring is a concentrated discharge of groundwater appearing
at the ground surface as a current of flowing water. To be
distinguished from springs are seepage areas, which indicate a
slower movement of groundwater to the ground surface.

spring
1.Depression Springs formed where the ground surface
intersects the water table.
2.Contact Springs created by permeable water-bearing
formation overlying a less permeable formation that intersects
the ground surface.
3. Artesian Springs resulting from releases of water under
pressure from confined aquifers either at an outcrop of the
aquifer or through an opening in the confining bed.
4. Impervious Rock Springs occurring in tubular channels or
fractures of impervious rock.
5. Tubular or fracture Springs issuing from rounded channels,
such as lava