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GROUND WATER
RESERVOIR
 GROUND
WATER
RESERVOIR
 Geologic Formations

Aquifer
A saturated, permeable geologic unit that can transmit significant quantities of
water under ordinary hydraulic gradients.
Contains and transmits

Aquitard
A geologic unit that may be permeable enough to transmit groundwater in
quantities significant to regional groundwater flow, but not permeable enough to
allow producing groundwater wells.
Contains and transmits insignificant (e.g. sandy clay, leaky confining layer)

Aquiclude
A saturated geologic unit that is incapable of transmitting significant quantities of
water under ordinary hydraulic gradients.
Contains but doesn’t transmit (e.g. confining layer, clay)

Aquifuge
An absolutely impermeable unit that will not transmit groundwater.
Neither contains nor transmits (e.g. Massive compact rock without any fracture)
 What is an Aquifer?

Body of saturated soil/rock through which water can easily move.

Aquifers must be both permeable and porous.

Include rock types such as sandstone, conglomerate, fractured limestone and unconsolidated sand and
gravel.

Fractured volcanic rocks also make good aquifers.

In order for a well to be productive, it must be drilled into an aquifer.

Rocks such as granite and schist are generally poor aquifers because they have a very low porosity.
However, if these rocks are highly fractured, they make good aquifers .

Amount of water in storage in the aquifer can vary from season to season and year to year.

Depending on the permeability, ground water velocity may vary up to 50 feet per year or 50 inches per
century.

Every aquifer has a recharge zone or zones and a discharge zone or zones.

Recharge of an aquifer is due to rain, snowmelt, river, reservoir leakage or irrigation.

Discharge from an aquifer occurs through springs near the stream and in wetlands at low altitude, and
also from wells and high-altitude springs.
Aquifer Sustainability
Aquifer shallow deep

Residence time 10’s of years 1000’s of years

Supply
Recharge rate >>10 cm/year 0.5 cm/year

Personal
consumption 1 cm/year
(2640 persons/km2; 10L/person/day)

Demand
Irrigation 60 cm/year

Therefore, a Deep aquifer will likely sustain personal,

but not necessarily irrigation use.
Time required by groundwater to move from recharge to discharge areas
Few days (zones adjacent to discharge) to millennia
(central part of some recharge through deeper GW systems.
Wet Land: a large area covered with very wet soft land, and is usually near a lake,
river or sea, that tends to flood and is always wet.
 Types of Aquifers
 Unconfined Aquifer – water is in contact with
atmospheric pressure – drill and well hit the
water table.
 Confined- Water is under pressure due to the
weight of the up gradient water and the
confinement of the water between
“impermeable” layers. Water flows to surface
under artesian pressure in an Artesian Well.
 Perched- It is an aquifer on small scale formed
when a lens or localized patch of impervious
stratum occurs inside an unconfined aquifer.
 Aquifers - water in permeable, porous beds

An UNCONFINED aquifer has access to the surface and water can percolate freely from
rainfall into the aquifer. (Also called Water Table Aquifer)

A CONFINED aquifer is bound by low permeability beds above and below and can only
get water from surface exposures. (Also called Artesian Aquifer, because a number of such
aquifers were found in Artois a former province of north France )
END