1. Chapter 14-1 Groundwater
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Geology

2. Groundwater
Factors that affect the amount of seepage of water into the ground are:
Type of rock or soil on the ground where the water falls
Climate, topography, land use, vegetation

3. Porosity
The percent of a materials volume that is pore space – the more the space, the more water that can be held.
Depends on:
Particle shape
More rounded particles allows for more pore spaces
Sorting
Well sorted material (same size) offers greatest pore spaces

5. Permeability
The rate at which water or other liquids pass through the pore spaces of a rock.
Permeability increases with grain size
Ex: sand and gravel is highly permeable while clay and shale has low permeability.
So, can a rock be highly porous but not be permeable? – explain…
Or, can a nonporous rock become highly permeable?

7. The water table
The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation
Above this level up to the surface, the ground can still hold more water, and this area is called the zone of aeration
This zone of aeration contains 3 parts:

9. The three parts of the zone of aeration are:
1) capillary fringe
Found just above the water table, where water rises due to water’s attraction to the soil particles.
This is called Capillary action
2) a dry region of soil except after rainfall
3) organic or humus layer just below the surface

10. What are some factors that affect the depth of the water table

11. How is the water table important?
Seepage from water table keeps streams flowing between rain events
Maintains water levels of lakes and wetlands
Provides drinking water from natural springs and human-made wells

12. Types of wells Ordinary well Water must be pumped out of the well
Artesian well
Well water is under some pressure to force the water up the well – does not have to be to the top.
Large volumes of water found underground in the pore spaces is called an aquifer.
***best aquifers are those made of uncemented sands and gravel, followed by porous sandstones.

13. View of an artesian formation

14. How does a geyser occur?
Geyser animation

15. Conserving Groundwater - Water Budgets
Chapter 14-2
Pages

16. Water budget Describes the income and spending of water for a region.
The income is rain or snow
The spending includes water loss by use, runoff, and by evapotranspiration.
Weather is the controlling factor of evapotranspiration
- when temperatures are high, the amount of evapotranspiration would also increase.
- the opposite is also true, low temperature causes low evapotranspiration.

17. Four parts of a water budget
Recharge
When moisture is added to the groundwater, the soil water storage is filling
Surplus
Occurs when the rainfall is greater than the need for moisture, and the storage water is filled
Usage
If the need for moisture is greater than the rainfall and the plants draw water from the soil water supply
Deficit
Occurs when the need for moisture is greater than the rainfall and the soil water is gone.

18. Examples of water budget

19. Another water budget example

20. Water conservation
In many regions, water is being used at a faster rate than can be naturally replenished.
Pollution is also threatening many groundwater supplies

21. Percent water consumption

22. Overuse of groundwater
When groundwater supplies are depleted, the water table drops
This may cause wells, springs to go dry
If this happens along coastal regions, salt water may seep into overused freshwater aquifers and damage water supplies by making them salty and unusable.

23. Overuse of groundwater may cause ground levels to drop due to compaction of the removal of groundwater below.
Entire valleys may subside like the San Joaquin Valley of California (up to 30 feet drop from )!

24. Sinkholes may form from loss of groundwater

25. In Florida
In Bowling Green, KY

26. Groundwater pollution
Groundwater may become polluted by human activities:
Fertilizer
Oil from roadways
Pesticides
Sewage from septic tanks and sewers
Hazardous wastes from industry
Toxic waste dumps (Love Canal – New York)

27. Images of Love Canal

28. Groundwater and Geology
Chapter 14-3
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29. Geologic formations formed by groundwater
Groundwater moving through bedrock may take in dissolved minerals.
This water is now called “hard water”.
Calcium ions is most common mineral in hard H2O
What do we do at home to reduce hard water?
Hard water causes water spots, poor washing
Artesian water is usually harder than regular groundwater
Groundwater is almost always harder than river water

31. Mineral deposits
When water evaporates or cools, it will leave behind any minerals that were dissolved in the water.
Examples: geyserite, geodes, mineral veins of copper, quartz, gold, silver, calcite, etc.
Petrified wood is formed when minerals replace decaying wood of buried trees
Calcite is most common dissolved mineral cement for grains of sand and pebbles.

33. Mineral springs A spring with a high concentration of mineral matter
May be due to:
Hot water
Water passes through easily dissolved minerals
Water contains large quantity of gases
Some mineral springs areas have become health resorts – Hot Springs, Arkansas
Yellowstone’s Mammoth Hot Springs forms calcium deposits called traventine

35. Caverns Formed in areas with limestone bedrock
Limestone is dissolved by carbonic acid found in the groundwater
Dripstone
Stalactites
Stalagmites
When they meet, they form columns or pillars
Examples include Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, caves of Calumet and Door County, WI, Eagle Cave west of Madison

37. Karst Topography
Identified by sinkholes, sinkhole ponds, fissures, lost rivers, and underground rivers
Created when caverns collapse
Forms where bedrock is made of calcite or dolomite
Found in south-central Kentucky, Door County, WI