groundwater. freshwater is one of earth’s most abundant and important renewable resources
TRANSCRIPT
CHAPTER 10: GROUNDWATER
Vocabulary Terms: Turn in today
Aquiclude, aquifer, geyser, hot spring, infiltration, permeability, spring, water table, zone of saturation, zone of aeration, CAVE, KARST TOPOGRAPHY, SINKHOLE, STLACTITE, STALAGMITE, ARTESIAN WELL, DRAWDOWN, RECHARGE, WELL
TAKE HOME TEST WORD BANK
• Artificial selection (use twice)• Mutation• Symbiosis• Invasive• Niche (use twice)• herbivory
CHAPTER 10: GROUNDWATER1. Describe how groundwater storage and underground
movement relate to the water cycle2. Illustrate an aquifer and a aquiclude3. Relate the components of aquifers with the presence of
springs4. Explain how groundwater dissolves and deposits rocks and
minerals5. Illustrate how caves form6. Describe the features of karst topography shape the
landscape7. Explain how groundwater is withdrawn from aquifers by
wells8. Describe the major problems that threaten groundwater
supplies
THE HYDROLOGIC CYCLE
The circulation of Earth's water supply Processes involved in the cycle1. Precipitation2. Evaporation3. Infiltration4. Runoff5. Transpiration
PRECIPITATION AND GROUNDWATER
• The Evaporation of seawater introduces water into the atmosphere in the form of water vapor and clouds.
• Precipitation brings moisture from the atmosphere back to Earth’s surface.
• Infiltration: the process by which precipitation that falls on land surfaces enters the ground and becomes ground water.
GROUNDWATER STORAGE
• Subsurface materials have porosities ranging from 2 or 3 percent to more than 50 percent.
Well sorted sedimentsHigh porosity
Poorly sorted sedimentsLow porosity
•Porosity is the percentage of pore space in a material.
ZONE OF SATURATION
• The zone of saturation is the depth below Earth’s surface at which groundwater completely fills ALL the pores of a material.
• The water table is the upper boundary of the zone of saturation.
• The Zone of aeration: the area above the water table, materials are moist but the pores contain mostly air
GROUNDWATER MOVEMENT
•Permeability is the ability of a material to let water pass through it. •Materials with large, connected pores have high permeabilities. •Sand and gravel have high permeabilities.
•Fine-grained materials typically have low permeabilities because their pores are so tiny. •silt, clay, and shale, are said to be impermeable.
•Water moves faster (velocity) through permeable materials.
GROUNDWATER MOVEMENT
GROUNDWATER MOVEMENT
•Aquifers are underwater permeable layers where most groundwater flow takes place.•Aquicludes are impermeable layers that block the flow of groundwater.•Clay and shale layers are examples of aquicludes
WELLS
• Wells are holes dug or drilled deep into the ground to reach a reservoir of groundwater.• The simplest wells are those that are dug or drilled below
the water table.
WELLS
• Overpumping of the well lowers the water level in it and produces a cone of depression in the water table around the well.
WELLS
• Drawdown: the difference between the original water-table level and the water level in the pumped well.
• Recharge: the process in which water from precipitation and runoff is added back to the zone of saturation.
CONFINED AQUIFERS•Water-table aquifers are unconfined and unprotected, and thus, they are easily polluted.
•More reliable and less easily polluted water supplies can be found in deeper aquifers, called confined aquifers, which are generally sandwiched between aquicludes.
CONFINED AQUIFERSArtesian Wells
– Because the area of recharge is usually at a higher elevation than the rest of an aquifer, a confined aquifer contains water under pressure.
– The aquifer is called an artesian aquifer.
– Artesian well: a well drilled into a confined aquifer from which water spurts above the land surface in the form of a fountain.
GROUNDWATER EROSION AND DEPOSITION
•Most groundwater contains some acid, usually carbonic acid. •As a result, groundwater is usually slightly acidic and attacks carbonate rocks, especially limestone.
• Limestone consists mostly of calcium carbonate (CaCO3), which dissolves readily in any kind of acid.
•Cave: a natural underground opening with a connection to Earth’s surface. •Practically all caves are formed when groundwater dissolves limestone.•Most caves develop in the zone of saturation just below the water table.
KARST TOPOGRAPHY
KARST TOPOGRAPHY• Characteristic surface features formed by
the dissolution of limestone include:• Sinkhole: a depression in the ground caused by the collapse of a cave or by the direct dissolution of bedrock by acidic rain or moist soil. • Sinking stream: forms when surface water drains into a cave, flows underground and leaves a dry valley above• Karst topography: describes limestone regions that have sinkholes, sinks, and sinking streams
HARD WATER
• Water that contains high concentrations of calcium, magnesium, or iron is called hard water.
• Hard water is common in limestone areas where the groundwater is nearly saturated with calcium carbonate.
NATURAL DEPOSITS
• Dripstone formations:• Stalactites: cone-shaped or cylindrical structures that hang from a cave’s ceiling like icicles.• Stalagmites: mound-shaped dripstone deposits that form as water drops splash to the floor of a cave.• Travertine: the type of limestone that composes dripstone formations.
THREATS TO OUR WATER SUPPLY
• Overuse:•If groundwater is pumped out at a rate greater than the recharge rate, the groundwater supply will inevitably decrease, and the water table will drop
THREATS TO OUR WATER SUPPLY
• Subsidence:•Ground subsidence, or the sinking of land, is a problem caused by the excessive withdrawal of groundwater•Water pressure helps carry the weight of the material overlying an aquifer. •What happens if there is nothing to support this weight?
Pollution in Groundwater
• Confined aquifers, though somewhat protected from local pollution, become contaminated when their recharge areas are polluted.
• The most common sources of groundwater pollution are sewage, industrial waste, landfills, and agricultural chemicals.
CHEMICALS
• Chemicals dissolved or transported with groundwater are in the form of ions and molecules, and thus, they cannot be filtered out in fine-grained sediments.
• Chemicals generally move downslope as a mass of contaminants that spreads through the environment. (pollution plume)
SALT
• In many coastal areas, the contamination of freshwater by salt water is the major problem.
• The overpumping of wells can cause the underlying salt water to rise into the wells and contaminate the freshwater aquifer.