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Jai Ganesh

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Registered: 2005-06-28

Posts: 46,171

Water table

Water table

Gist

Water table, also called groundwater table, is an upper level of an underground surface in which the soil or rocks are permanently saturated with water. The water table separates the groundwater zone that lies below it from the capillary fringe, or zone of aeration, that lies above it. The water table fluctuates both with the seasons and from year to year because it is affected by climatic variations and by the amount of precipitation used by vegetation. It also is affected by withdrawing excessive amounts of water from wells or by recharging them artificially.

Summary

The water table is the boundary between the unsaturated zone and the saturated zone underground. Below the water table, groundwater fills any spaces between sediments and within rock.

The water table is an underground boundary between the soil surface and the area where groundwater saturates spaces between sediments and cracks in rock. Water pressure and atmospheric pressure are equal at this boundary.

The soil surface above the water table is called the unsaturated zone, where both oxygen and water fill the spaces between sediments. The unsaturated zone is also called the zone of aeration due to the presence of oxygen in the soil. Underneath the water table is the saturated zone, where water fills all spaces between sediments. The saturated zone is bounded at the bottom by impenetrable rock.

The shape and height of the water table is influenced by the land surface that lies above it; it curves up under hills and drops under valleys. The groundwater found below the water table comes from precipitation that has seeped through surface soil. Springs are formed where the water table naturally meets the land surface, causing groundwater to flow from the surface and eventually into a stream, river, or lake.

The water table level can vary in different areas and even within the same area. Fluctuations in the water table level are caused by changes in precipitation between seasons and years. During late winter and spring, when snow melts and precipitation is high, the water table rises. There is a lag, however, between when precipitation infiltrates the saturated zone and when the water table rises. This is because it takes time for water to trickle through spaces between sediments to reach the saturated zone, although the process is helped by gravity. Irrigation of crops can also cause the water table to rise as excess water seeps into the ground.

During the summer months, the water table tends to fall, due in part to plants taking up water from the soil surface before it can reach the water table. The water table level is also influenced by human extraction of groundwater using wells; groundwater is pumped out for drinking water and to irrigate farmland. The depth of the water table can be measured in existing wells to determine the effects of season, climate, or human impact on groundwater. The water table can actually be mapped across regions using measurements taken from wells.

If water is not extracted through a well in a sustainable manner, the water table may drop permanently. This is starting to be the case around the world. Some of the largest sources of groundwater are being depleted in India, China, and the United States to the point where they cannot be replenished. Groundwater depletion occurs when the rate of groundwater extraction through wells is higher than the rate of replenishment from precipitation.

Details

The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated.

The water table is the surface where the water pressure head is equal to the atmospheric pressure (where gauge pressure = 0). It may be visualized as the "surface" of the subsurface materials that are saturated with groundwater in a given vicinity.

The groundwater may be from precipitation or from groundwater flowing into the aquifer. In areas with sufficient precipitation, water infiltrates through pore spaces in the soil, passing through the unsaturated zone. At increasing depths, water fills in more of the pore spaces in the soils, until a zone of saturation is reached. Below the water table, in the phreatic zone (zone of saturation), layers of permeable rock that yield groundwater are called aquifers. In less permeable soils, such as tight bedrock formations and historic lakebed deposits, the water table may be more difficult to define.

The water table should not be confused with the water level in a deeper well. If a deeper aquifer has a lower permeable unit that confines the upward flow, then the water level in this aquifer may rise to a level that is greater or less than the elevation of the actual water table. The elevation of the water in this deeper well is dependent upon the pressure in the deeper aquifer and is referred to as the potentiometric surface, not the water table.

Form

The water table may vary due to seasonal changes such as precipitation and evapotranspiration. In undeveloped regions with permeable soils that receive sufficient amounts of precipitation, the water table typically slopes toward rivers that act to drain the groundwater away and release the pressure in the aquifer. Springs, rivers, lakes and oases occur when the water table reaches the surface. Groundwater entering rivers and lakes accounts for the base-flow water levels in water bodies.

Surface topography

Within an aquifer, the water table is rarely horizontal, but reflects the surface relief due to the capillary effect (capillary fringe) in soils, sediments and other porous media. In the aquifer, groundwater flows from points of higher pressure to points of lower pressure, and the direction of groundwater flow typically has both a horizontal and a vertical component. The slope of the water table is known as the hydraulic gradient, which depends on the rate at which water is added to and removed from the aquifer and the permeability of the material. The water table does not always mimic the topography due to variations in the underlying geological structure (e.g., folded, faulted, fractured bedrock).

Perched water tables

A perched water table (or perched aquifer) is an aquifer that occurs above the regional water table. This occurs when there is an impermeable layer of rock or sediment (aquiclude) or relatively impermeable layer (aquitard) above the main water table/aquifer but below the land surface. If a perched aquifer's flow intersects the surface, at a valley wall, for example, the water is discharged as a spring.

Fluctuations

Seasonal fluctuations in the water table-during the dry season, river beds may dry up.

Tidal fluctuations

On low-lying oceanic islands with porous soil, freshwater tends to collect in lenticular pools on top of the denser seawater intruding from the sides of the islands. Such an island's freshwater lens, and thus the water table, rises and falls with the tides.

Seasonal fluctuations

In some regions, for example, Great Britain or California, winter precipitation is often higher than summer precipitation and so the groundwater storage is not fully recharged in summer. Consequently, the water table is lower during the summer. This disparity between the level of the winter and summer water table is known as the "zone of intermittent saturation", wherein the water table will fluctuate in response to climatic conditions.

Long-term fluctuations

Fossil water is groundwater that has remained in an aquifer for several millennia and occurs mainly in deserts. It is non-renewable by present-day rainfall due to its depth below the surface, and any extraction causes a permanent change in the water table in such regions.

Effects on crop yield

Most crops need a water table at a minimum depth. For some important food and fiber crops a classification was made because at shallower depths the crop suffers a yield decline. For some important food and fiber crops a classification was made.

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