Table of Contents
Why are porosity and permeability important for having a reliable groundwater supply?
In addition to porosity (the amount of pore space), permeability is another important factor needed for groundwater movement to occur. Permeability is the measure of how easily water flows through soil or rocks, so it depends on the size of the pore space and how well connected they are to one another.
How does permeability affect groundwater pollution?
Many sites have groundwater impacts associated with soils of varying permeability. When a source of groundwater contamination is isolated in a lower permeability zone, diffusion from low permeability soils can be the dominant long-term transport process into higher permeability soils.
What affects porosity and permeability?
Permeability: a measure of the ability of a material (such as rocks) to transmit fluids. Porosity and permeability are related properties of any rock or loose sediment. Both are related to the number, size, and connections of openings in the rock.
How does porosity and permeability relate to water?
Porosity refers to how much air space is in the soil or rock. Permeability refers to the ease with which water can travel through the material. In many cases, rocks or soil with high porosity will also have high permeability. The water will pass quickly through the air spaces in the rock or soil.
How does the porosity of an aquitard affect water flow?
In fact, in the ground they often act as a barrier to water flow and separate two aquifers. The one key exception is that aquitards can have high porosity and hold lots of water however, due to the their low permeability they are unable to transmit it from pore to pore and therefore water cannot flow within an aquitard very well.
Which is an example of the permeability of a rock?
Porosity can be a factor in permeability. Figure 1: Porosity: Pumice is an example of a rock with high porosity, meaning that it is very porous. Pumice is a type of volcanic rock. It has so much air space in the tiny bubbles within the rock that it will float on water [1] .
What does porosity tell us about the soil?
Porosity is the volume of those pores relative to the total space, and it’s a good measure of how much water the ground can hold. It also tells us a lot about the type of soil or sediment we’re looking at. Let’s go back to our jar of nuts.