Which rock type would you expect to provide the best quality groundwater?

Which rock type would you expect to provide the best quality groundwater?

Unconsolidated materials like gravel, sand, and even silt make relatively good aquifers, as do rocks like sandstone. Other rocks can be good aquifers if they are well fractured.

What is it called when the soil or rock is full of water?

This seeping process is called saturation. Sediment or rocks that are full of water are saturated. The water table sits on top of what experts call the zone of saturation, or phreatic zone. The area above the water table is called the vadose zone.

What determines groundwater quality?

Factors like climate, slope, drainage conditions, water–rock interaction and anthropogenic activities contribute to the groundwater quality [4]. Turbidity in water arises from the presence of very finely divided solids [6]. Dissolved minerals, especially divalent cations cause total hardness in water.

Is a formation of rock and soil that stores enough water and supplies wells or springs?

When a water-bearing rock readily transmits water to wells and springs, it is called an aquifer. Wells can be drilled into the aquifers and water can be pumped out. Precipitation eventually adds water (recharge) into the porous rock of the aquifer.

How are sedimentary rocks formed?

The most important geological processes that lead to the creation of sedimentary rocks are erosion, weathering, dissolution, precipitation, and lithification. Erosion and weathering include the effects of wind and rain, which slowly break down large rocks into smaller ones.

What is a synonym for aquifer?

In this page you can discover 11 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for aquifer, like: groundwater, groundwaters, sediment, evaporite, surface-water, alluvium, ground-water, sedimentation, organic-rich, seawater and clastic.

What is meant aquifer?

aquifer, in hydrology, rock layer that contains water and releases it in appreciable amounts. The rock contains water-filled pore spaces, and, when the spaces are connected, the water is able to flow through the matrix of the rock. An aquifer also may be called a water-bearing stratum, lens, or zone.

What is groundwater chemistry?

The major dissolved components of groundwaters include the anions bicarbonate, chloride and sulphate, and the cations sodium, calcium, magnesium and potassium. These constituents are typically present at concentrations in the range of a few mg/L to several hundred mg/L.

What does the term groundwater mean?

Groundwater is water that has infiltrated the ground to fill the spaces between sediments and cracks in rock. Groundwater is fed by precipitation and can resurface to replenish streams, rivers, and lakes. 5 – 8. Biology, Ecology, Chemistry, Earth Science.

What is soil and how it is formed?

Soil is the thin layer of material covering the earth’s surface and is formed from the weathering of rocks. Soil formation is a two-step process: Weathering of rocks takes place. Rock is broken down into small particles. These small particles mix with humus (organic matter) and form soil.

How rock is formed?

There are three main types of rocks: sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic. Each of these rocks are formed by physical changes—such as melting, cooling, eroding, compacting, or deforming—that are part of the rock cycle. Sedimentary rocks are formed from pieces of other existing rock or organic material.