There is water somewhere beneath your feet no matter where on Earth you live. Groundwater starts as precipitation, just as surface water does, and once water penetrates the ground, it continues moving, sometimes quickly and sometimes very slowly. Eventually groundwater emerges A huge amount of water exists in the ground below your feet, and people all over the world make great use of it. But it is only found in usable quantities in certain places underground — aquifers.
Read on to understand the concepts of aquifers and how water exists in the ground. Even though the ground is an excellent mechanism for filtering out particulate matter, such as leaves, soil, and bugs, dissolved chemicals and gases can still occur in large enough concentrations in groundwater to cause problems.
How much do you know about the water below your feet? Yes, water below your feet is moving all the time, but, no, if you have heard there are rivers flowing below ground, that is not true. Water moves underground downward and sideways, in great quantities, due to gravity and pressure.
Eventually it emerges back to the land surface, into rivers, and into the oceans to keep the water cycle going. The ground stores huge amounts of water and it exists to some degree no matter where on Earth you are. Lucky for people, in many places the water exists in quantities and at depths that wells can be drilled into the water-bearing aquifers and withdrawn to server the many needs people have. Groundwater is one of our most valuable resource—even though you probably never see it or even realize it is there.
Groundwater is essential for irrigation and human use in many parts of the country. The use of groundwater in the United States in is described below. As a non-existent proverb states: " Humans don't live by surface water alone.
Groundwater is invaluable for many uses, from irrigation to drinking-water supply. But, you can't see groundwater, so how do water scientists know where it is in order to be able to drill wells and pump it out for use Millions of cubic miles of water exists in the ground.
You can't see it, but not only is it there, it is always moving around -- mostly downward, but also horizontally. Moving groundwater helps keep rivers full of water and allows for people to draw out water via wells. Moving groundwater is an important part of the water cycle. Commercial pesticide applicators, farmers, and homeowners apply about 1 billion pounds of pesticides annually to agricultural land, non-crop land, and urban areas throughout the United States.
The use of pesticides has helped to make the United States the largest producer of food in the world and has provided other benefits, but has also been accompanied by concerns about their potential Groundwater will normally look clear and clean because the ground naturally filters out particulate matter.
But did you know that natural and human-induced chemicals can be found in groundwater even if appears to be clean? Below is a list of some contaminants that can occur in groundwater.
Most of us don't have to look for water. We grew up either in big cities where there was a public water supply, or in small towns or on farms where the water came from wells. But there are some people to whom finding a new supply of water is vitally important.
As the salesmen sang in the musical The Music Man, "You gotta know the territory. Learn as much as possible about the land, the water supply, and the septic system of the house before buying or building. Do not just look at the construction aspects or the beauty of the home and Groundwater also can be recharged when water supply systems leak and when crops are irrigated with more water than required.
There are also techniques to manage aquifer recharge and increase the amount of water infiltrating into the ground. Groundwater can be found almost everywhere. The water table may lie deep or shallow depending on several factors such as the physical characteristics of the region, the meteorological conditions and the recharge and exploitation rates.
Heavy rains may increase recharge and cause the water table to rise. But in the other hand, an extended period of dry weather may cause the water table to fall. When groundwater reaches an aquifer it does not stand still. Save This Word! We could talk until we're blue in the face about this quiz on words for the color "blue," but we think you should take the quiz and find out if you're a whiz at these colorful terms.
Origin of ground water First recorded in — How to use ground water in a sentence Shoddy well construction is considered a primary cause of groundwater contamination at drilling sites. The data collected will be used to update previously published groundwater-altitude maps to help better understand groundwater flow. The work is being conducted in cooperation with the. From — , the USGS is assessing groundwater throughout the country through extensive sampling.
The latest results from five regional aquifers are now available. Skip to main content. Search Search. Learn more: What is Groundwater? Ground Water and the Rural Homeowner.
Apply Filter. How can an earthquake affect groundwater or changes in wells? Groundwater levels in wells may oscillate up and down while seismic waves pass, and in some cases, the water level may remain higher or lower for a period of time after the seismic wavetrain has ended. How much water is used by people in the United States? That data is revised every 5 years. How much natural water is there? Earth is estimated to hold about 1,,, cubic kilometers of water. The breakdown of where all that water resides is estimated as follows: Oceans saline 1,,, cubic kilometers Ice caps and glaciers fresh 31,, cubic kilometers Groundwater fresh and saline 8,, cubic kilometers Streams and lakes fresh , cubic Does the use of pesticides affect our Nation's water quality?
Pesticide use in the United States has increased because not only must we supply our exploding population with food, but crops and food are also grown for export to other countries. The United States has become the largest producer of food products in the world, partly owing to our use of modern chemicals pesticides to control the insects, weeds Where can I get my well water tested?
Contact your county or state health department or check with your State Certification Officer for a list of state certified laboratories in your area that do water testing. The cost will vary, depending on the laboratory and the test s , but people usually consider the cost to be reasonable. Also try using your browser's search engine to do a What determines if a well will go dry? A well is said to have gone dry when water levels drop below a pump intake.
This does not mean that a dry well will never have water in it again, as the water level may come back through time as recharge increases. The water level in a well depends on a number of things, such as the depth of the well, the type confined or unconfined of aquifer How can I find the depth to the water table in a specific location?
The depth to the water table can change rise or fall depending on the time of year. During the late winter and spring when accumulated snow starts to melt and spring rainfall is plentiful, water on the surface infiltrates into the ground and the water table rises. When water-loving plants start to grow again in the spring and precipitation gives Do you have maps of aquifers and groundwater in the United States?
This Ground Water Atlas of the United States is a series of USGS publications that describe the location, the extent, and the geologic and hydrologic characteristics of the important aquifers of the Nation. The series consists of 13 chapters that describe the regional groundwater resources that collectively cover 50 States, Puerto Rico, and the U If the ground filters water, is groundwater always clean? Water drawn from a well was once precipitation that fell onto Earth's surface.
It seeped into the ground and, over time, occupied the porous space in some subsurface material. Big particles that are in surface streams, such as leaf chunks, will not be seen in groundwater. So, yes, big particles are filtered out by the ground, along with some
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