GROUNDWATER HYDROLOGY Groundwater accounts for 25.7% of the total freshwater and 98.

4% of the unfrozen fresh water in the hydrosphere (Mather, 1984). Although groundwater is renewable, the rate at which it is replenished is often much slower than the rate at which water is pumped from the water-yielding earthen layer or aquifer. AQUIFERS As water drains down through the soil, it flows through the root zone and then through a zone referred to as the unsaturated zone (vadose zone or zone of aeration). As shown in fig. 1, the pores of the geologic material in the unsaturated zone are partially filled with water. The remaining portion is filled with air. The water continues to migrate vertically down. This zone is known as zone of saturation, the saturated zone, or the phreatic zone. The water in the zone of saturation is referred to as groundwater. The geologic formation, through which water can flow horizontally and be pumped, is called to as aquifer.

UNCONFINED AQUIFERS The upper surface of the zone of saturation in aquifers that are not confined by impermeable material is called the water table. This type of aquifer is called water table aquifer, a phreatic aquifer, or an unconfined aquifer. The smaller void spaces in the geologic material must just above the water table may contain water as a result of interactive forces between the water and the soil. The process

of soil drawing water above its static level is known as capillary action. The zone in which this occurs is referred to as the capillary fringe. Although the pores in this region are saturated with water, this water cannot be thought of as a source of supply because the water held in this region will not drain freely by gravity. In an unconfined aquifer, the water table can vary significantly with rainfall and seasons. The process of infiltration and migration, renewing the supply of groundwater, is referred to as recharge.

PERCHED AQUIFERS A perched aquifer is a lens of water held above the surrounding water table by an impervious geologic layer. It may cover an area from a few hundred square meters to several square kilometers. Drilling wells into perched aquifers can present problems because the volume of water held in these aquifers is relatively small, resulting in the well dying out after a short period of pumping. CONFINED AQUIFERS Aquifers bounded both above and below the saturated zone by impermeable layers are referred to as confined aquifers. The impermeable layers are called confining layers. Confining layers are classified either as aquicludes or aquitards.

ARTESIAN AQUIFER The water in a confined aquifer may be under considerable pressure due to the impermeable nature of the confining layers, which restrict flow, or due to elevation differences in the aquifer. The system is analogous to a manometer. If the water in aquifer is under pressure, it is called an artesian aquifer. The name artesian comes from the French province of Artois (Artesium in Latin), where in the days of the Romans, water flowed to the surface of the ground from a well. When the water pressure in the aquifer is sufficient high to push the water up through the geologic materials of the aquifer and overlying unsaturated zone and out onto the ground surface, the aquifer is known as a flowing artesian aquifer. Water enters an artesian aquifer at some location where the confining layers intersect the ground surface. This is actually in an area of geological uplift. The exposed surface of the aquifer is called the recharge area.

SPRINGS The location where the water table breaks the ground surface is called a gravity, or seepage spring. Springs can result from either confined or unconfined aquifers.

COMPLEXITIES IN HYDROGEOLOGY Aquifers are very complex and highly variable geological formations. Variations in groundwater flow occur spatially, both in the vertical and horizontal directions. Lenses of variable geologic material may be present within a formation.

PIEZOMETRIC SURFACES AND HEAD If we place small tubes (piezometers) vertically into a confined aquifer, the water pressure will cause water to rise in the tubes just as the water in the legs of a manometer rises to a point of equilibrium. The height of the water in the tube], referred to as piezometric head, is a measure of the pressure in the aquifer. Te piezometric head is measured using the water level in the well. An imaginary plane drawn through the points of equilibrium in several piezometers is called as a piezometric surface. In an unconfined aquifer, the piezometric surface is the water table. If the piezometric surface of a confined aquifer lies above the ground surface, a well penetrating into the aquifer will flow naturally without pumping. In this case the well

penetrates into an artesian aquifer. If the piezometric surface is below the ground surface, the well will not flow without pumping. The hydraulic gradient is the difference in the head t two locations divided by the distance between the locations.

GROUNDWATER FLOW Water flows along the piezometric surface from areas of higher head to lower head. In unconfined aquifers, the piezomeric surface is the water table. The piezometric surface can be calculated by subtracting the depth of water below the ground surface from a predefined datum. In many cases the datum is either the height of the top of the confining layer relative to the sea level or the depth below ground surface. The hydrologist Henry Darcy, found out that the rate of ground water flow depends on the hydraulic gradient and on a property of geologic material known as the hydraulic conductivity. The hydraulic conductivity can be thought of as a measure of how easy it is to obtain flow of water through the porous media (ie., the sand graviel, etc.).