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| A permeable body of rock or regolith that both stores and transports groundwater. |
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artesian formation [image] |
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| Of, being, or concerning an aquifer in which water rises to the surface due to pressure from overlying water. |
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evapotranspiration [image] |
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| All methods of water moving from a liquid to water vapor in nature. Includes both evaporation and transpiration. |
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| A natural spring marked by the intermittent escape of hot water and steam. |
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| The perpetual movement of water among the mantle, oceans, land, and atmosphere of the Earth. |
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| Characteristic of geologic materials that limit their ability to transmit significant quantities of water under the head differences normally found in the subsurface environment. |
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| A measure of how well a material can transmit water. Materials such as gravel, that transmit water quickly, have high values of permeability. Materials such as shale, that transmit water poorly, have low values. Permeability is primarily determined by the size of the pore spaces and their degree of interconnection. Permeability measures are expressed in units of velocity, such as centimeters per second, and assume a gradient of one vertical foot of drop per linear foot. |
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| The volume of pore space in a rock, sediment or soil. Usually expressed as a percentage. This pore space can include openings between grains, fracture openings and caverns |
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| The geographic area where water infiltrates into the ground and enters an aquifer. |
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| A budget of the incoming and outgoing water from a region, including rainfall, evaporation, runoff, and seepage; often used to estimate ... |
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| A budget of the incoming and outgoing water from a region, including rainfall, evaporation, runoff, and seepage; often used to estimate ... |
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| The movement of water between the atmosphere, ground and surface water bodies through the processes of evaporation, precipitation, infiltration, percolation, transpiration and runoff. Also known as the "hydrologic cycle". |
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| A level beneath the Earth's surface, below which all pore spaces are filled with water and above which the pore spaces are filled with air. The top of the zone of saturation in a subsurface rock, soil or sediment unit. |
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