Groundwater

Mark J. Crawford, MS.

Pages 83-100

groundwater
Groundwater is extremely important to our way of
life . Most drinking water supplies and often
irrigation water for agricultural needs are drawn from
underground sources. More than 90 percent of the
liquid fresh water available on or near the earth's
surface is groundwater.
Hot groundwater can also be a source of energy.
Groundwater is derived from rain and melting snow
that percolate downward from the surface; it collects
in the open pore spaces between soil articles or in
cracks and fissures in bedrock. The process of
percolation is called infiltration.

Ground Water As Part of

the Hydrologic Cycle

Porosity

The percentage of a rock or sedimentary deposit that consists of voids and

open space is its porositythe greater its porosity, the greater its ability to
hold water. Sediments are usually more porous than rocks.

Sedimentary rocks tend to be more porous than igneous rocks because

there is more open space between the individual sediment grains than
between the minerals in a crystallized rock .

The porosity of loose sand is about 40 percent ; compacting and dewatering

the sand reduces the porosity to about 15 percent ; the lithification of the
sand into a sandstone rock by formation of cement between the sand grains
reduces the porosity to about 5 percent or less.

Open space in fractures is also considered part of a rock's porosity.

An igneous rock that is jointed, fractured, or shattered can hold as much

water in its cracks as sedimentary rocks can hold between their grains.

Permeability
The ease with which fluid is transmitted through a rock's
pore space is called permeability. Although a rock may
be very porous, it is not necessarily very permeable.
Permeability is a measure of how interconnected the
individual pore spaces are in a rock or sediment .

A sandstone is typically porous and permeable . Shales

are porous but have a lower permeability because the
finer grain size creates smaller pore spaces.
Igneous rocks tend to have low porosity and low perme ability unless they are highly fractured by tectonic
processes.

The Water Table

Water flows downward through soil and bedrock because of the force of
gravity. It continues in that direction until a depth of about 5 kilometers (3
miles) is reached, where porosity and permeability cease.

The pore space above this level begins to fill progressively upward with
groundwater.

The saturated zone. The rock and soil in which all the open spaces are
filled with water is called the saturated (or saturation) zone. As the top of
the saturated zone rises toward the surface, it reaches a level of equilibrium
with the overlying unsaturated zone.

The unsaturated zone. The unsaturated zone (or zone of aeration) is the
rock and sediment in which pore spaces contain mostly air and some water
and therefore are not saturated . The unsaturated zone typically starts at the
surface and extends downward to the saturated zone. The contact between
the saturated and unsaturated zones is called the water table.

Zones of Aeration and Saturation

 There is "room" for air in the unsaturated zone

because the water is held to the sides of the soil
particles through the force of surface tension .
Surface tension also causes water to rise up into the
unfilled pore spaces from below through a process
called capillary action.
The lower part of the unsaturated zone that draws water
upward from the water table is called the capillary
fringe, which is usually only a few feet thick.

Perched water tables

A perched water table is an accumulation of groundwater
that is above the water table in the unsaturated zone.
The groundwater is usually trapped above an
impermeable soil layer, such as clay, and actually forms a
lens of saturated material in the unsaturated zone.

A perched water table is generally insufficient to supply

domestic groundwater needs, and often runs dry after being
drilled.
If the perched water table intersects a sloping surface, it may
be manifested by springs or seeps along the line of
intersection.

Migration of groundwater
The movement of groundwater is generally slow and ranges from 1
inch to a 1,000 feet per day.
In addiion to moving vertically downward for hundreds of feet, it
also flows laterally, roughly parallel to the slope of the surface of the
water table .

The slope of the water table is generally proportional to the slope of

the overlying land surface: the steeper the topography, the steeper
the slope of the water table. The steeper the slope of the water
table, the faster the groundwater flows .
The groundwater also moves more quickly in those sedimentary or
rock formations that have a higher permeability relative to other
formations .

Streams and Springs

The dynamics of groundwater movement have an
important effect on stream flow. Groundwater that
migrates into the stream channel increases stream flow;
water in a stream can also enter the nsaturated zone,
reducing stream flow.

Gaining streams . A gaining stream is one into which

groundwater flows from the saturated zone . The
channels of gaining streams are usually at or below the
level of the water table .
Bodies of water and marshes form when the water table
intersects the land surface over a broad, fairly flat area .

 Losing streams. The channel of a losing stream lies

above the water table and loses water into the
unsaturated zone through which it is flowing This water
then migrates down toward the

water table . A losing stream can induce the local water

table to rise.
In drier climates a losing stream may actually disappear
underground as its water content becomes progressively
diminished downstream

Springs
A spring is a natural flow of groundwater from a
rock opening that results when the water table
intersects a sloping land surface

.Springs can be seasonalfor example, during

the wet season the saturated zone is closer to
the surface because of increased rain - fall, often
resulting in more springs .

Aquifers
Aquifers are porous, permeable, saturated formations of rock or
soil that transmit groundwater easily.
The best aquifers are coarse-grained sediments such as sand and
gravel .
A confined aquifer is overlain by a less permeable bed that keeps
the water in the aquifer under pressure;
An unconfined aquifer does not have a confining bed that
separates the zone of saturation from the unsaturated units above it.

Impermeable formations such as shale, clay, or unfractured igneous

rocks that retard water flow are called aquitards or aquicludes.

Aquifer
If more water is removed from an aquifer through pumping than
is introduced through recharge, the water table drops.
This often results in wells that go dry or a surface that sinks
because the ground surface is no longer as supported.
This subsidence inflicts expensive damage on buildings, roads, and
pipelines .
Heavy use of an aquifer can be balanced through artificial
recharge, a process by which treated industrial wastewater or
floodwaters are stored in infiltration ponds.
The water soaks into the ground to replenish the groundwater or is
pumped back into the aquifer.

Wells
. Wells are drilled into the water table to tap aquifers for
domestic, industrial, and agricultural use .
The level of the water table fluctuates with changing
climatic conditions.

During a dry period, the water table drops to a deeper

level because water has drained out of the saturated
zone into the rivers.

During wet periods the water table rises because of the

additional water percolating down from the surface into
the zone of saturation.

 The water table tends to be closer to the surface in valleys than on

hillsides . Recharge occurs in those areas where new water is added to
the saturated zone and replenishes water that has been lost .
The best wells are drilled deeply enough to supply a continuous flow of
water during all the seasonal changes in the water tablethus they draw
water from below the lowest level of the water table .

In artesian wells, which tap water from confined aquifers, either the water
level in the well simply rises above the aquifer (nonflowing artesian
wells) or it spouts at the surface (flowing artesian wells) .
Whether a well is flowing or nonflowing depends on the amount of
pressure that is exerted on the groundwater in the confined aquifer.
When water is pumped from a well, the water table is generally lowered
around the well . This local lowering of the water table is called
drawdown. Centered on the stem of the well, it has the shape of an
inverted cone called the cone of depression .
The drawdown decreases with increasing distance from the well .

What is karst topography?

Topography with features relating to
underground solution.
Collapse may also be involved.
Surface waters diverted
underground.
Features: sinkholes, sinking streams,
rises, caves.

Florida Sinkhole

Terra Rossa Filling Grike

Cave