Chapter TWO

Groundwater Occurrence
2.1. Introduction
• Groundwater system is a system in the earth’s
crust where the open space in the rock/soil is
completely (??) filled with water and exist at a
pressure greater than atmospheric.
• Groundwater stretches out below the
groundwater table/level. Groundwater table,
which is the top most part of groundwater,
may be located near or even at land surface
and not fixed; i.e., it fluctuates seasonally.
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• Two zones can be distinguished in which
water occurs under the surface of the ground

I. The unsaturated zone/ Zone of

aeration
II. The saturated zone

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Three-dimensional view of groundwater

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 2.2. The Unsaturated Zone
• Extending between the surface of the ground
and the top of the water level (water table or
piezometric surface).
• Complex movement, distribution and
occurrences of subsurface water is taking
place.
• Links the open atmosphere with the complex
geologic subsurface of the saturated zone.

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• Sub zones of Unsaturated zone

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Soil water zone
• The soil water subzone extends from the
ground surface to certain depth below the
ground surface, usually the major depth of
roots of crops predominantly growing in the
area (Todd, 1980. This zone is the zone which
plays quite a significant role in the growth of
plants as it can store capillary water in the soil
pores which plants can access.

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• However, the availability of water to the plants
is dependent on the pressure head in the
zone.
Water in the zone can be;
– Gravitational
– Capillary
– Hygroscopic

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Intermediate Vadose zone
• Extend from the bottom of soil water root zone
to an anticipated level of the top of capillary
fringe.
• Thickness can range from zero (water table at
the surface) to hundreds of meters (deep water
table conditions) (Todd, 1980).
• Serving as a conveyance zone for temporary
excess water migrating downward as
gravitational water.
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Capillary Fringe
• Extends from the water table up to the limit of
the capillary rise of water which also forms
the bottom of the intermediate vadose zone.
• Concept arises from the fact that if a tube of
small diameter is inserted in a water thank
with its open end, the water in the tube tends
to rise due to the effect of surface tension
force.

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Water flow in the unsaturated zone
Processes:
• Infiltration
• Redistribution
• Percolation
• Evaporation
• Root water uptake
• Lateral seepage

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 2.3. The saturated (GW) ZONE
• Groundwater is the water which occurs in the
saturated zone.
• All earth materials, from soils to rocks can
have some pore spaces.
• Natural variations in permeability and ease of
transmission of groundwater in different
saturated geological formations lead to the
recognition of geo-hydrologic terms such as
aquifer, Aquitard, Aquiclude and Aquifuge.

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• Aquifer: This is a water-bearing layer in which
the porosity and pore size are sufficiently large
that it not only stores but also yields sufficient
quantity of water due to its high permeability.
Ex: Unconsolidated deposits of sand and gravel
form good aquifers (e.g. sand, gravel layers).
• Aquitard: It is less permeable geological
formation which may be capable of
transmitting water (e.g. sandy clay layer). It
may transmit some quantities of water that are
significant in terms of regional groundwater
flow
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• Aquiclude: is a geological formation which is
essentially impermeable to the flow of water. It
may be considered as closed to water movement
even though it may contain large amount of
groundwater due to its high porosity (e.g. clay).

• Aquifuge: is a geological formation, which is

neither porous nor permeable. There are no
interconnected openings and hence it cannot
transmit water. Massive compact rock without
any fractures is an aquifuge.
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 2.4 Aquifer Properties affecting GW
occurrence
i. Texture
ii. Porosity, Void Ratio
iii. Specific Yield (Sy), Specific Retention (Sr)
iv. Specific Surface Area
v. Saturation Percentage, Sr, Water Content
vi. Storage Coefficient, S
vii. Specific Storage, Ss

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 Texture:
• Texture refers to the size of the formation particles.
• Fine to course particles: clay, silt, sand, gravel, etc.

• The size of the particles is usually determined using

mechanical sieve analysis for coarser particles and
hydrometer analysis for fine particles.

• There are many classifications of texture which may

make use of the result of mechanical sieve analysis or
the hydrometer to determine what type of material it
is practically: Example: USDA classification.

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Soil Separate Particle Diameter (mm)
USDA ISSS

Very course Sand 2.1-1.0 -

Course Sand 1.0 – 0.5 2-0.2
Medium Sand 0.5-0.25 -
Fine Sand 0.25-0.1 0.2-0.02
Very Fine Sand 0.1-0.05 -
Silt 0.05-0.002 0.02-0.002
Clay <0.002 <0.002

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• Fine materials can hold water but do not easily
yield it… clay

• Coarser formation materials do hold and

transmit water very easily : hence are good
aquifer systems. Sand, Gravel.

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 Porosity and Void Ratio
• The porosity, n, is the ratio of volume of open
space (open space occupied by water and air) in
the rock or soil to the total volume of soil or
rock.
 Vv 
n =   *100
 VT 
where:
Vv = the pore volume or volume of voids
VT = the total volume of the soil
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Porosity

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• Porosity is the measure of water holding
capacity of a geological formation.
• The greater the porosity means the larger the
water holding capacity.
• Porosity depends up on the shape, size, and
packing of soil particles. Porosity greater than
20% is considered large; 5-20% medium and less
than 5% is small.
• Fine textured formations have larger porosity
than coarse textured ones.

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Type of Range of Type of Range of
rock porosity rock porosity
Unconsolidated Consolidated

Gravel 0.2-0.4 Basalt 0.05-0.5

Sand 0.2-0.5 Limestone 0.05-0.5

Silt 0.3-0.5 Sandstone 0.05-0.3

Clay 0.3-0.7 Shale 0.0-0.1

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• While porosity gives a measure of the water
storage capability of a formation, not all the
water held in the pores is available for
extraction by pumping or drainage by gravity.

• The pores hold back some water by

molecular attraction and surface tension: the
case in fine grained formations.

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• Porosity is the most important property of rocks that
enable storage and movement of water in the
subsurface.
• It directly influences the permeability and hydraulic
conductivity of formations.
• Voids depend on the depositional mechanisms of
formation materials and other geologic processes that
affect the formation of rocks/sediments.
• Thus one may have primary porosity: refers to the
porosity of the material which is formed during the
formation of the rock;
• While secondary porosity refers to the porosity which
takes place later on due to various factors as: tectonic
forces (faulting, folding), fractures, cracks etc.
• Both porosities undergo multiple changes through time.

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• With regard to movement of water through voids,
it is important to worth mentioning that some
voids are separated from others/disconnected.
• Thus these pores do not take part in flow of water
in the formation. They do not yield.
• Thus it is important for that part of the voids
which manage the fair transit of water through
them. Aquifers are mainly concerned with these
voids.
• The voids which are interconnected are
responsible for the movement of water through
the aquifer system.
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• Thus we have effective porosity: neff

VV int erconnected
neff =
VT

• The volume of interconnected voids can be

determined by a water displacement test.

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• The type of openings (voids or pores) in which groundwater
occurs is an important property of the sub-surface formation.
Three types of pores can be generally distinguished.
• Pores: Openings between individual particles as in sand and
gravel.

• Fractures, Crevices or joints: This means fractures and crevices

in hard rock which have developed from breaking of the rock.
The pores may vary from super capillary size to capillary size.

• Solution channels and caverns in limestone (karst water): This

means solution channels and openings resulting from gas
bubbles in lava. These large openings result in a turbulent flow
of groundwater which cannot be described with Darcy’s law.

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Groundwater Reserve depends on permeability
and extent of aquifers

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 Void Ratio, e
• Void ratio is the ratio of volume of voids to the
volume of solids.

Vv
e=
Vs
• In general, void ratio of clays is more than 1, while
void ratio of coarser particles is often less than 1.

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 Specific Yield, Sy; Specific Retention, Sr
• When water is drained by gravity from saturated
material, only a part of the total volumes is released.
This portion is known as Specific yield (Sy).

• The water not drained is called specific retention (Sr).

• The actual volume of water that can be extracted by
the force of gravity from a unit volume of aquifer
material is known as the specific yield, Sy.

• The fraction of water held back in the aquifer is

known as specific retention; Sr.
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• the sum of Sy and Sr is equal to the porosity.
• Specific yield (Sy ) = Vw/V

• specific retention (Sr) =Vr/V and

• Vv=Vw + Vr thus n= Sy + Sr

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• In fine-grained materials, the forces that
retain water against the force of gravity are
high due to the small pore size.

• Hence, the specific retention of fine-grained

material (silt or clay) is larger than that of
coarse material (sand or gravel).

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• Sy is several orders of magnitude > S
• Sy = 0.02 to 0.30
• Volume of water drained from an aquifer as
head lowers
• Vw = SA dh
• The storage coefficient for an unconfined aquifer
corresponds to its specific yield (Sy) or effective
porosity. Some values of specific yield for rocks
and soils are provided in the figure.

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Specific yield/porosity

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Table xxx Range of Values of Sy (Driscoll, 1986)

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 Specific Surface Area
• Specific Surface area is the ratio of the surface
area to the weight of the material.
• Specific surface area of fine materials is larger
than that of the specific surface area of the
coarser particles.
• SSA1 = 2(ab+bc+ac)/W
(The whole Block)
c • SSA2 = 2(2ab+bc+ac)/W
b
( Half the Block)
a

W
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Saturation percentage, Sr, water content (w, θ )

• The saturation percentage is the ratio of the

volume of void spaces occupied by water to the
total volume of voids.
• It is an index which measures how much of the
voids of a formation get saturated.

• Sr = vw/vv x100%

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 Water Content
• Gravimetric Water Content, w is the ratio of mass
water to the mass of soil solids.
• W = mw/ms
• Volumetric water content, is the ratio of the
volume of water in formation sample to the total
volume.
• θ = Vw/VT

Exercise: Establish the relationship between

Volumetric water content and Gravimetric water
content.
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 Storage Coefficient, S
• It is also called the storativity of an aquifer.
• The amount of water stored or released in an aquifer
column with a cross sectional area of 1m2 for a 1m
increase or drop in head is known as storage
coefficient.
• Storage coefficient of unconfined aquifer is equal to
the specific yield.
• In confined or semi-confined aquifers water is stored
or released from the whole aquifer column mainly as
a result of elastic changes in porosity and
groundwater density.
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• Common values for the storage coefficients for
confined and semi-confined aquifers range form
10-7 to 10-3.
• The volume of water drained from an aquifer,
Vw may be found from the following equation.
• Vw= SA∆h.
• Where A is horizontal area and ∆h is fall in head

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Specific Yield for Unconfined aquifer

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 Area =
1m2
Original Piezometric
water level

1.0m

Piezometric water level

after water removal

Volume of water
tapped= V(m3)

S concept for Confined aquifer

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 Specific Storage, Ss
• In a saturated porous medium water is stored in
the pores of the medium by a combination of
two phenomena; water compression and
aquifer expansion.
• In a unit of saturated porous matrix, the volume
of water that will be taken into storage under a
unit increase in head, or the volume that will be
released under a unit decrease in head is called
specific storage.

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• It is also the storage coefficient per unit
saturated thickness of an aquifer.
• S = Ss*b
• Ss = ρg(α+nβ)
where:
• ρ = fluid (water) density,
• g = gravitational acceleration,
• α = aquifer compressibility,
• n = porosity,
• β = water compressibility.
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 Hydraulic resistance and leakage factor
• The hydraulic resistance (c) characterizes the resistance of an
aquitard to vertical flow, either upward or downward. It is the
reciprocal of the leakage coefficient (K’/D’). K’ and D’ are the
hydraulic conductivity and the thickness of the aquitard,
respectively. It is often expressed in days.

• The leakage factor (L) or characteristic length is a measure of

the spatial distribution of the leakage through an aquitard into
a leaky aquifer and vice versa.

L = KDc
K and D are the hydraulic conductivity and thickness of the
leaky aquifer, respectively while c is the hydraulic resistivity.
Large value of L indicate a low leakage rate through the
aquitard.
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2.5. Geologic Formations as aquifers
• 2.5.1 Alluvial Deposits
• 2.5.2 Lime Stone
• 2.5.3 Volcanic Rock
• 2.5.4 Sand Stone
• 2.5.5 Igneous and Metamorphic Rocks

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