THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE GROUNDWATER TABLE
To be able to understand what a water table is , let ’ s take a look at a cut section of the earth . The image shows the different layers of the earth according to the relationship of the water and the soil . Basically , the water table or groundwater table is that boundary separating water-saturated ground and unsaturated ground . The water-saturated ground , or zone of saturation or phreatic zone , lies below the water table wherein all the openings of the rock are filled with water . Meanwhile , the unsaturated ground , also called as zone of aeration or vadose zone , is the layer or part of earth between the land surface and the top of zone of saturation . Vadose means
“ shallow ” in Latin , which is exactly what relative to the ground . Water table is not a fixed surface as it fluctuates depending on how much the water seeps downward from the ground surface . This is why it varies over the course of seasons and climatic variations – during drought , the water table is low ; during deluge , the water table is high . But to be safe , better build that shallow or deep well as deep as possible into the ground enough to reach the zone of saturation to have supply of water . It is not a flat table as what others might think – being a table – but it almost always follows the topography of the land above them . The water table is influenced by geology , weather , ground cover , and land use , other than topography . Aquifers are pockets of water that exist below the water table . They are used to extract water for people , plants and every living organism . It is a finite source of water , with some aquifers already threatened to be totally drained from over usage .
Photo by CuttingsWaterworks
Photo by Quizizz
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SEPTEMBER 2016 Clean Water Technologies