Essential

components of
groundwater
The rate of infiltration is a
function of soil type, rock
type, antecedent water,
and time.

The vadose zone includes all the material between the Earth’s surface and
the zone of saturation. The upper boundary of the zone of saturation is called
the water table. The capillary fringe is a layer of variable thickness that
directly overlies the water table. Water is drawn up into this layer by capillary
action.

S. Hughes, 2003
 How does the geology affect
the existence of ground water?

• What is an aquifer?
A permeable, water-containing unit.
- Water enters from recharge.
- Temporarily stored.
- Leaves by flow to streams (baseflow)
or springs, or to wells
- Has sufficient water to be usable
What is an unconfined
aquifer?
• They are not sealed off at any
point.
• Recharge can occur anywhere.
• Water at water table under
atmospheric pressure.
• Must pump to remove water
What is a confined (or
artesian) aquifer?
• Sealed off
• Transmits water down from
recharge area
• Water confined in aquifer unless
drilled.
- Water under hydrostatic
pressure.
- Water rises; well may flow.
Artesian well spouts water above land surface in
South Dakota, early 1900s. Heavy use of this aquifer
has reduced water pressure so much that spouts do
not occur today

Betsy Conklin for Dr. Isiorho

 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
 Perennial
Stream
(effluent)

• Humid climate
• Flows all year -- fed by groundwater base flow (1)
• Discharges groundwater
S. Hughes, 2003
 Ephemeral
Stream
(influent)

• Semiarid or arid climate

• Flows only during wet periods (flashy runoff)
• Recharges groundwater

S. Hughes, 2003
Groundwater flow patterns are
controlled by several
factors:
1. Elevation and location of
recharge and discharge
areas.
2. Heterogeneity of geologic
material
3. Thickness of material
4. Current or historic land use
practices

•Presence of streams,
lakes, or springs can
also greatly influence
groundwater patterns.

(Fetter 2001)
How does ground water move?
• Porosity: % by volume • Permeability: ability of
of an earth material an earth material to
that is pore space. transmit water
• Primary porosity • Depends upon
depends upon: - porosity
- shape of grains - degree and size of
- arrangement of grains interconnecting pores
- size distribution between larger pores
- compaction/cement’n
 What are some typical values
of porosity and permeability?
• Porosity
clay 45-55 %
sand 30-40
sandstone 10-20
shale 1-2
limestone 1-10 (or larger)
• Permeability: varies over several orders of
magnitude. Expressed as a rate, e.g. ft/day
 Darcy’s Law
• formulated by Henry Darcy based on the
results of 1855 and 1856 experiments

• stating that the flow rate of water through

porous materials is proportional to the
hydraulic head drop and the distance
(hydraulic gradient )

• The law holds only in laminar flows

 laminar flow
• smooth, viscosity dominated flow. the direction of motion at
any point remaining constant as if the fluid were moving in a
series of layers sliding over one another without mixing
• Reynold's number for groundwater
Re = d * V * ρ / μ
where d= grain diameter, (usually d30),
V = velocity
ρ = density of water
μ = viscosity of water

• Laminar flow Normally Re < 1 Never > 10

 Hydraulic Conductivity, k
• Soil grain size
• Structure of the soil matrix
– pore size distribution
– pore shape
– porosity
• Type of soil fluid
– fluid density
– fluid viscosity
• Saturation
Ground water management issues
• Vegetation removal can decrease
interception and ET losses
– Leads to increase soil moisture- higher water
tables
• Ground water extraction exceeding
recharge
– Leads to higher pumping costs
– Land subsidence
– Sea water intrusion if coastal
Ground water management issues
• Urbanization can decrease recharge
opportunity
– Decrease soil storage, decrease low flows

• Ground water contamination

– Improper dumping of contaminants
– Difficult to clean up
 Problems associated with
extreme groundwater withdrawal

• Dry Wells – cone of depression already seen

• Saltwater contamination near coast
• Groundwater withdrawal causes saltwater to
be drawn into coastal wells, contaminating
supply

• Contamination of Wells with sewage

• Formation of Collapse Sinkholes

Saltwater contamination due
to excessive well pumping
Sinkholes in Urban Settings
• What happens when a new well here is
heavily pumped?
Groundwater Overdraft
Overpumping will have two effects:
1. Changes the groundwater flow
direction.
2. Lowers the water table, making it
necessary to dig a deeper well.
• This is a leading factor in desertification in
some areas.
• Original land users and land owners often
spend lots of money to drill new, deeper
wells.
• Streams become permanently dry.

S. Hughes, 2003
 Pollution of Ground Water
• pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers: chemicals
that are applied to agricultural crops that can
find their way into ground water when rain or
irrigation water leaches the poisons
downward into the soil
• rain can also leach pollutants from city dumps
into ground-water supplies
• Heavy metals such as mercury, lead,
chromium, copper, and cadmium, together
with household chemicals and poisons, can
all be concentrated in ground-water supplies
beneath dumps
www.geology.iupui.edu/Academics/.../G110-10-Ground_Water.ppt
 Pollution of Ground Water
• liquid and solid wastes from septic tanks, sewage
plants, and animal feedlots and slaughterhouses
may contain bacteria, viruses, and parasites that can
contaminate ground water
• acid mine drainage from coal and metal mines can
contaminate both surface and ground water
• radioactive waste can cause the pollution of ground
water due to the shallow burial of low-level solid and
liquid radioactive wastes from the nuclear power
industry

www.geology.iupui.edu/Academics/.../G110-10-Ground_Water.ppt
 Pollution of Ground Water
(cont.)
• pumping wells can cause or aggravate
ground-water pollution

Water table steepens near a dump, increasing the velocity

Water-table slope is reversed by pumping, changing
of ground-water flow and drawing pollutants into a well direction of the ground-water flow, and polluting the well

www.geology.iupui.edu/Academics/.../G110-10-Ground_Water.ppt
 Balancing Withdrawal and
Recharge
• a local supply of groundwater will last
indefinitely if it is withdrawn for use at a
rate equal to or less than the rate of
recharge to the aquifer
• if ground water is withdrawn faster than it
is being recharged, however, the supply is
being reduced and will one day be gone

www.geology.iupui.edu/Academics/.../G110-10-Ground_Water.ppt
Balancing Withdrawal and Recharge
• heavy use of ground water can result in:
• a regional water table dropping
• deepening of a well which means more electricity
is needed to pump the water to the surface
• the ground surface settling because the water no
longer supports the rock and sediment
1925
Subsidence of the land surface caused by the extraction
of ground water, near Mendota, San Joaquin Valley, CA.
Signs on the pole indicate the positions of the land
1955 surface in 1925, 1955, and 1977.
The land sank 30 feet in 52 years.

www.geology.iupui.edu/Academics/.../G110-10-Ground_Water.ppt
 Balancing Withdrawal
and Recharge
• to avoid the problems of falling water
tables, subsidence, and compaction, many
towns use artificial recharge to increase
recharge; natural floodwaters or treated
industrial or domestic wastewaters are
stored in infiltration ponds in the surface to
increase the rate of water percolation into
the ground

www.geology.iupui.edu/Academics/.../G110-10-Ground_Water.ppt
 Ground water chemistry
• One of the most important natural changes
in groundwater chemistry occurs in the
soil. Soils contain high concentrations of
carbon dioxide which dissolves in the
groundwater, creating a weak acid
capable of dissolving many silicate
minerals
 Ground Water vs
Surface Water Quality
• GW quality, temperature and other parameters are less
variable over the course of time than SW
• Range of groundwater parameters encountered is much
larger than for surface water, e.g., total dissolved solids
can range from 25 mg/L in some places in the Canadian
Shield to 300 000 mg/L in some deep saline waters in
the Interior Plains.
• At any given location, groundwater tends to be harder
and more saline than surface water.
• It is also generally the case that groundwater becomes
more saline with increasing depth, but again, there are
many exceptions.