Lecture 6 - Groundwater Structures Flashcards
What are Void Spaces:
Pores and fractures in bedrock where groundwater is
What is an Aquifer:
Layer of water bearing material (permeable; supports springs)
What is an Aquitard:
Layer that retards water flow (like clay) - relatively impermeable
What is an Aquiclude:
Layer absorbs, holds but does not transmit water (impermeable)
What is a Perched Water Table?
Aquifer that occurs above the regional water table (regular groundwater)
What is a Spring?
Exit point at which groundwater emerges from the aquifer and flows onto the top of the Earth’s crust to become surface water
What is a Well?
A hole made into the ground to access water contained in an aquifer
What is the Groundwater divide?
- A curve representing the water table ridge (described with contours of the groundwater level) that separates the flow into subdomains
- Flows from upland recharge areas to valley discharge areas
What is the Transfer Between Karst to Spring?
Water table intersects ground
What is an Artesian spring due to?
Irregularity along the fault to spring
What Does Aquifers Do?
- Stores water
- transmits water
- Yeilds water
What do Aquifers Depend on?
Geology: recharge, aquitards, aquicludes, etc.
What is an Unconfined (water table) Aquifers Influenced By?:
Atmosphere (need pump)
What is an Artesian Well:
A well that brings groundwater to the surface without pumping because it is under pressure within a body of rock and/or sediment in a confined aquifer
What Structure is Most Vulnerable to Contamination?
Vadose zone (unconfined aquifers)
