28
votes
How can we have groundwater depletion when the Earth is 78% covered with oceans?
How can we still lack groundwater?
That 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by oceans is completely irrelevant to the issue of fresh groundwater depletion. Salty groundwater is useless for drinking ...
- 20k
18
votes
How important is understanding linear algebra in groundwater modeling?
Relatively important, depending on the basic principles of the modeling you are interested in, and to what extent you want to get yourself involved in it.
In many areas of computational geophysics, e....
- 4,925
16
votes
How is it possible to use up the water in a region?
This is a really complex problem and would require a really detailed explanation about atmospheric circulation, meteorology and hydrology.
The short answer to your question is that water is going ...
- 1,248
14
votes
Accepted
Do ringwoodite minerals point to an "ocean's worth" of water, or a true subterranean ocean?
A "true subterranean ocean" would suggest a vast amount of liquid water in the mantle. This is most probably not present, for which there are a number of clues.
First of all, when looking at ...
- 2,602
14
votes
Accepted
Water veins underground causing health problems
In my opinion, there is no such thing as water veins as described in this article, but, it is a fact that there is water circulation underground.
In the natural environment, water can either ...
- 2,623
14
votes
Accepted
How is it possible to use up the water in a region?
You're making a mistake, at least for the second case:
In the second case, the water ends up as rain, presumably within a few hundred kilometers of the evaporation point.
You cannot model a dry ...
- 11.1k
14
votes
Accepted
Ground water is almost every where, then how do mines and other holes are digged so that ground water doesn't drain into it
We pump it out. Open and closed pit mines usually have pumping installations to get the water out.
Look up Mine dewatering on Wikipedia.
There have also been numerous accidents in the past where ...
- 2,625
13
votes
Is it possible that the recent droughts are signs of epic crust failure?
Is it possible that the recent droughts are signs of epic crust failure?
No. Even though your 5 points do not make much sense, I'll try to answer it anyway.
There are no continental plates. There ...
- 22.2k
11
votes
Accepted
What is the name of this landform?
This is a large glacier calving event. Calving occur at the front of the glacier, probably a very wet (and likely warm based) glacier where a considerable amount of water is flowing out of the system (...
- 2,623
10
votes
Do rivers/creeks flow underground when they dry up at the surface?
Water in liquid state always takes the fastest route to lower altitude. All rainwater would flow vertically down to the groundwater surface if not the permeability was limited by the material ...
- 5,896
9
votes
Accepted
Do rivers/creeks flow underground when they dry up at the surface?
To answer this question, I'll back up a bit and first talk about what happens to rain as it flow to streams then about what happens when streams dry up.
When it rains, some of the rain hits the ...
- 4,319
8
votes
Accepted
Why does an artesian well dry slower than a normal well?
Well B is a normal water table well, which will have a relatively steep, tight, local, and deep 'cone of depression'. Well A doesn't have a 'cone of depression' - it has a 'cone of depressurization', ...
- 14.1k
7
votes
Measurement of groundwater levels
Terminology
The term "average" isn't a specific term. Are you talking daily average or annual average? The question "What is the average?" begs the question of "Across what timeframe?"
To explain ...
- 2,688
7
votes
Accepted
Generic pedo-transfer functions to compute field capacity and wilting point from sand/silt/clay?
As far as I know, there’s no one definitive pedo-transfer function (PTF) but there have been several studies that train functions against multi-site databases, rather than just deriving site-specific ...
- 3,133
7
votes
What does groundwater consist of?
Groundwater consists mostly of water, obviously.
Usually, "minerals" in water (for example in bottled water) are actually not minerals but rather dissolved ions. Strictly speaking, minerals are solids....
- 22.2k
7
votes
Accepted
Has anyone driven under, or received camera footage from, the Great Artesian Basin in Australia?
Groundwater is stored in the porosity of rocks, that is space between clasts or cracks. Larger cavities, e.g. karsts, is usually only a minor contribution to ground water reservoirs and are only ...
- 5,896
7
votes
How old is Earth's groundwater?
The age of groundwater can vary over a large span. The moment a drop of rain enters the ground it becomes groundwater and when it reaches the groundwater table, the water starts to flow towards a ...
- 5,896
7
votes
Accepted
Can a microGPS tracker trace the path of an underwater drainage conduit?
GPS units require a clear view of the sky to fix their position. Because unlike radio signals used for communications, once the GPS signal have bounced in a wall becomes useless for computing the ...
- 17k
6
votes
Measurement of groundwater levels
As your question involves environmental law, the correct answer to this question will be based on whichever country or agency would be in charge of providing a permit; as you already noted, commercial ...
- 434
6
votes
Water veins underground causing health problems
The other thing to be mindful about is near surface water or moisture in soil resulting from a high water table, poor soil drainage or a leaking water pipe. Such moisture can lead to rising damp in ...
- 20.3k
6
votes
Accepted
How do you determine the age of >60 year old water?
According to this pdf: Physikalische Grundlagen der Klimaarchive Eis und Grundwasser (mostly German - some English) all methods to determine the age of groundwater bodies older than ~60 years are ...
- 285
6
votes
Accepted
What would happen if the same soil received waste water contaminants for a long time?
Like many things in Earth Science, the answer is, "It depends."
In this case it depends on the composition of the soil and the contaminant you are talking about. Climate, particularly the amount of ...
- 4,319
6
votes
Accepted
Concept of artesian aquifers and pressure is not clear.
The red line or piezometric line is the level to which the water wants to rise - if it were allowed to reach hydrostatic equilibrium. Artesian conditions are anywhere where a confined aquifer sits ...
- 316
5
votes
How do you determine the age of >60 year old water?
Klanomath is technically correct regarding natural radionuclides, although in practical terms it is only radiocarbon and 36-Cl that are used to date water. Tritium, from atom bomb tests in the 1950s ...
- 14.1k
5
votes
What does groundwater consist of?
as for constituents in groundwater this pub may help, or at least point to additional information.
as for is it safe to drink - according to [estimated water use] http://water.usgs.gov/edu/wups.html, ...
- 181
5
votes
How old is Earth's groundwater?
Groundwater ages vary enormously across the globe and with depth: from hours in parts of Florida and areas with Karstic geology, to tens of thousands of years in the American breadbasket, all the way ...
- 2,698
5
votes
What is meant by inverted water table?
An Inverted or Perched water table is a water table that is above the main or regional water table in an unconfined aquifer. The perched water table is generally above a layer of low permeability ...
- 5,861
5
votes
How to recharge ground water directly from river water
The solution you are looking for is called "artificial recharge of aquifers" or "managed underground storage of recoverable water", among several other names.
Several different ...
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