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The Water Cycle
Cli
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Groundwater is simply water under the ground where the soil is completely filled or saturated with water. This water is also called an aquifer.
Groundwater
Water movement is slow and might move anywhere from less than a millimeter up to a mile in a day.
Groundwater moves underground from areas where the elevation is high, like a hilltop, to places that are lowland areas.
Groundwater
Where the water table meets the land surface, a spring might bubble up or seep from the ground and flow into a lake, stream, or the ocean.
GroundwaterGround water that meets the land surface also helps keep
rivers, streams, lakes and wetlands filled with water.
Zone of Aeration: area where the pore spaces in the rock/soil are empty of water
Zone of Saturation: area where the pore spaces in the rock/soil are filled with water
Water Table: boundary between zone of saturation & zone of aeration; wells must go below the water table to reach water
Porosity and PermeabilityPermeability: how quickly water can travel
through a material
Porosity: the percent of a material’s volume that is pore space
Sinkholes from groundwater overpumping, Antelope Valley, CA
Dust storm during Dust Bowl in Kansas, when overpumping from wells & a drought caused farmers to ‘overspend’ the water budget
CavesLimestone is a common bedrock that dissolves more easily than some types of rock. The carbonic acid found in groundwater dissolves the calcite found in limestone. Chemical weathering changes the calcite into clay increasing the porosity of the limestone left behind.
CavesOver time as more and more water flows through cracks in the limestone bedrock, the carbonic acid dissolves the limestone and carries it away in solution. After thousands of years, these cracks become larger eventually forming a network of underground tunnels. These caverns, or caves can be many miles long and hundreds of feet deep.
Cave Formations
• When water drips from the roof of a cave, calcite is deposited. Slender deposits called stalactites hang like icicles from the roof. On the cave floor beneath the stalactites, a rounded mass called stalagmites form. When they meet, a column is formed.
Luray Caverns, VA
Observe an animation of cave formation.
Karst TopographyThey are regions characterized by caves, sinkholes, lost rivers or sinking streams, and underground drainage.
Step 1: Acidic groundwater dissolves limestone. Then the water table drops, leaving empty caves.
Development of Karst Topography
Step 2: Ground above the caves is eroded away.
Step 3: Thin rock above the cave collapses, creating a sinkhole.
Lost or sinking streams form when the surface stream
disappears underground and
flows out of a cave many miles away.