Water in the ground

• The amount of water that rocks or soil can

hold depends on their porosity and
permebeality
 Vocabulary
• Groundwater
• Porosity
• Permeability
• Water table
• Capillary action
• Ordinary well
• Spring
• Acquifer
• Artesian formation
• Geyser
GROUNDWATER: Acquifers
 Groundwater: aquifers

• Any geologic unit through which water can

move easily
• An aquifer is an underground layer
of water-bearing permeable rock that
can absord and hold water.
• Porosity: how much water a geologic
material can hold.
 Opposite of an aquifer?
• Aquitard / aquiclude
– retards the flow of groundwater (it’s almost
never really zero)
 How Groundwater Moves
• Groundwater usually travels slowly underground
seeping and filtering through particles of soil and
pores within rocks
• Gravity is the prime factor in the movement of
groundwater from higher to lower locations
• The rock material can retard (impermeable rock)
and divert flow
• As the groundwater flows, pollutants follow the flow
and spread out
 Water in the Ground
Groundwater reaches the surface through natural springs and through
wells. Acquifers are permeable layers of rock and sediment that have
groundwater in enough quantity to supply wells. In areas associated with
volcanic activity, groundwater may be very hot, resulting in the formation of
springs and geysers.

GROUNDWATER: Water that enters and is stored in the

ground.
POROSITY: The percent of a material’s volume that is
pore space.
PERMEABILITY: The rate at which water or other liquids
passes through the pore spaces of a rock.
• POROSITY
- the percent of a material’s volume that is pore space.
• PERMEABILITY
-the rate at which water or other liquids passes through the pore
spaces of a rock.
 Water in the Ground
• Water Table: The surface below which the ground is
saturated with water.
• Capillary Action: A phenomenon whereby groundwater rises
because the water molecules are attracted to soil particles.
• Spring: A small stream of water whose source is
groundwater that has reached the surface.
• Acquifer: A permeable layer of rock and sediment that
stores and carries groundwater in enough quantites to
supply wells.
• Geyser: A hot spring that intermittently shoots columns of
hot water and steam into the air.
 Ground Water
and Surface Water
• These are almost always connected
• If a stream contributes water to the
aquifer it’s called a “losing stream”
• If a stream receives water from the
aquifer it’s called a “gaining stream”
• Same stream can be both at different
places or at different times
SPRING
SPRING
Artesian Formation
- An arrangement of a permeable layer of rock sandwiched between two
layers of impermeable rock.
Geyser
- A hot spring that intermittently shoots columns of hot water and
steam into the air.
 Groundwater and Geology
As water moves through the ground, it
dissolves minerals. When the
groundwater cools or evaporates, the
dissolved minerals are often left behind
as deposits such as travertine,
geyserite, petrified wood, stalactites,
stalagmites, and the sement that binds
sedimentary rocks.
• MINERAL DEPOSITS
- A deposit that is left behind when groundwater that contains
minerals cools or evaporates.

• CAVERN
- A large underground chamber.

• KARST TOPOGRAPHY
- Topography characterized by sinkholes, sinkhole ponds, lost
rivers, and underground drainage; forms in areas with bedrock made of
calcite, dolomite, or other minerals that dissolve easily.
CAVERN
KARST TOPOGRAPHY
MINERAL DEPOSITS
 Conserving Groundwater

A water budget relates the recharge, surplus,

usage, and deficit of soil water to the moisture
needs and the moisture supply of an area. Overuse
of groundwater leads to problems such as
subsidence. Groundwater pollution is a serious
threat to supplies of usable water.
• Water Budget
- Describes the income and the spending of water in a region.

• Recharge
- The refilling of soil water supply at times when plants need little
moisture.

• Surplus
- The condition of having rainfall greater than the need for
moisture when the soil is already saturated.

• Usage
- The condition where plants draw water from the soil at times
when the need for moisture is greater than the rainfall.

• Deficit
- The condition in which stored soil water is gone and the need for
moisture is greater than the rainfall.
 Pumping Animation
• “Streams interact with ground water in
three basic ways: streams gain water
from inflow of ground water through
the streambed (gaining stream), they
lose water to ground water by outflow
through the streambed (losing stream),
or they do both, gaining in some reaches
and losing in other reaches”
(Wayne attach a video here)
 What is happening here?
• In the low permeability case the water is pumped
primarily from the area directly around the well,
whereas with the higher permeability the water
seems to be drawn from a more broad area
surrounding the well "hole". Since permeability
refers to the ability of a material to let a fluid move
through it, the low permeability doesn't allow the
water to venture far from the path of pressure
change (the "hole" of the well).
• What happens when this well is heavily
pumped?
• What happens when a new well here is
heavily pumped?
 Flow
direction can
change