Geologic Formations

The hydraulic properties of a water-bearing formation are not only determined by the
porosity but also by the interconnection of the pores and the pore size.
In this respect the subsurface formations are classified as follows:
Aquifer: which is a water-bearing layer for which the porosity and pore size are
sufficiently large to allow transport of water in appreciable quantities (e.g. sand
deposits).
Aquiclude: an impermeable layer, which may contain water but is incapable of
transmitting significant quantities.
Aquitard: a less permeable layer, not capable of transmitting water in a horizontal
direction, but allowing considerable vertical flow (e.g. clay layer).
Aquifuge: impermeable rock neither containing nor transmitting water (e.g. granite
layers).

The water transmitting properties are dominated by the type of geological formation.
Rocks can be divided in three main groups:
Igneous rocks, which are formed at the solidification of cooling magma (e.g. granite)
or volcanic material (e.g. basalt). Igneous rocks have a crystalline structure and a very
low porosity (often less than 1 %). The water-bearing properties are generally very
low unless an extensive jointing, fracturing and faulting is present.
Geologic Formations: Classification of rocks
Sedimentary rocks are formed by deposits of weathered material of pre-existing
rocks. Depending on the type of transporting mechanism the following sedimentary
rocks may be distinguished:
• Fluvial or alluvial (river) deposits, which include gravel, sand, silt and clay. These
formations are characterized by stratification. The porosity varies between 20 and
60 %, but only gravel and sand show macro-pores! Due to cementing, pressure
and/or temperature sand may have changed in sandstone and lime deposits into
limestone. These consolidated rocks have a much lower ability to transmit water
unless fractures or karst phenomena (limestone) are present.
• Aeolian (wind) deposits include sand and silt (loess). Often large areas are covered
with relatively homogeneous material.
• Glacial (ice) deposits during the Pleistocene glaciers deposited glacial till which
usually is a mixture of silt, sand and clay in which pebbles and huge boulders may
be present. These deposits are in general poor water producers.
Metamorphic rocks are formed from igneous or sedimentary rocks by chemical and
physical processes (heat and pressure). Examples are slate, gneiss, quartzite and
marble. These rocks are the poorest water producers.
NB: sedimentary rocks are named in relation to their origin, location and
environmental conditions, e.g. marine (sea) deposits, organogenic deposits (from
organic life), terrestrial deposits, etc.
 Aquifers

Unsaturated Zone, Vadose Zone, Soil Moisture Zone, Zone of Aeration – rock, water
and air

Capillary Fringe – region above water table where water rises due to capillary forces
in the porous medium.
Aquifer - a geologic unit that stores and transmits water/a body of soil or rock that
can hold and transmit a useable amount of water/ A geologic unit capable of storing
and transmitting water in sufficient quantities/ water-bearing layer for which the
porosity and pore size are sufficiently large to allow transport of water in appreciable
quantities
 Aquifers
Aquifers may consist of sand and gravel, limestone that is fractured or partly
dissolved, or sandstone that is fractured. Clay, shale and crystalline rocks are usually
confining materials.
Types of aquifers
Unconfined aquifer (also phreatic or water-table aquifer): consists of a pervious
layer underlain by a (semi-) impervious layer. The aquifer is not completely saturated
with water. The upper boundary is formed by a free water table (phreatic surface).
• Water is in contact with atmospheric pressure – drill and well hit the water
table/
• The permeable layer extends to the surface. It consists of an unsaturated zone
separated from the saturated zone by the groundwater table.

Confined aquifer: consisting of a completely saturated pervious layer bounded by

impervious layers. The water level in wells tapping those aquifers rises above the top
of the pervious layer and sometimes even above soil surface (artesian wells). Water
flows to surface under artesian pressure in an Artesian Well/ The permeable layer is
sandwiched between less-permeable layers (aquitards or aquicludes).
Semi-confined or leaky aquifers: consist of a completely saturated pervious layer,
but the upper and/or under boundaries are semi-pervious.
 Aquifers: Confined vs. Unconfined Aquifers
Although unconfined aquifers are used for water supply, they are often
contaminated by wastes and chemicals at the surface. Confined
aquifers are less likely to be contaminated and thereby provide supplies
of good quality.
 Aquifers
Water Table: The top of saturated zone of groundwater/ It is the level
to which water will rise in a hole/ the level to which water will rise in
an unconfined aquifer
 Aquifers
• Aquifers may consist of sand and gravel, limestone that is fractured
or partly dissolved, or sandstone that is fractured.
• Clay, shale and crystalline rocks are usually confining materials.
 Aquifers, Porosity, And Darcy’s Law
A perched water-table may develop during a certain time of the year
when percolating soil moisture accumulates above a less pervious
layer.
 Aquifers
Ground water flows from high to low elevations. Areas of high
elevation are recharge areas.
 Aquifers
Ground water flows very slow. For example, water in a river flows
about 1000 to 10000 times faster than in an aquifer, and a billion times
faster than in a confining material
 Aquifers
Ground water flows towards and discharges to rivers, lakes, wetlands,
springs, or wells.

In this diagram,
ground water
discharges to a
well and a stream
 Aquifers: Key Aquifer Properties
Porosity – Percentage volume occupied by voids. Cemented Sand
• It is a measure of the potential volume of water
that can be stored in a rock.
• It ranges from 0 to 50 per cent for most of the
rock materials.
• For aquifer considerations, porosities less than
5% are considered small, those between 5% and
20% are considered medium and those greater
than 20% are considered large.
• Porosity is, obviously, an inherent characteristic
of the material independent of the presence or
absence of water.
• For ground water studies, the interconnected
pore space which can be drained by gravity
should be used for determining the porosity and
such porosity is known as effective porosity.
Uncemented Sand
Aquifers: Key Aquifer Properties
Porosity varies with

% Cement

Size-Sorting

Fracturing
 Aquifers: Key Aquifer Properties
The specific yield of a soil
formation: the ratio of the volume
of water which the soil formation,
after being saturated, will yield by
gravity to the volume of the soil
formation.
The specific retention of a soil
formation: the ratio of the volume
of water which the soil formation,
after being saturated, will retain
against the pull of gravity to the
volume of the soil formation.
• These definitions of specific yield
and specific retention implicitly
assume complete drainage.
• The sum of the specific yield and
the specific retention would be
equal to the porosity of the given
soil formation.
 Aquifers: Key Aquifer Properties

• In case of confined aquifers there is no dewatering or draining of the material

unless the hydraulic head drops below the top of the aquifer. Therefore, the
concept of specific yield does not apply to confined aquifers and an alternative
term, storage coefficient or storativity is used for confined aquifers.
Storativity or storage coefficient: defined as the volume of water an aquifer would
release from or take into storage per unit surface area of the aquifer for a unit change
in head.
• Its value is of the order 5 × 10–2 to 1 × 10–5 .
• For the same drop in head, the yield from an unconfined aquifer is much greater
than that from a confined aquifer.
 Aquifers: Key Aquifer Properties
Permeability: for a porous medium, it describes the ease with which a fluid will pass
through it. Measures the transmission property of the media and the interconnection
of the pores. Related to hydraulic conductivity and transmissivity.
• Permeability therefore, depends on the characteristics of the medium as well as
the flowing fluid.
Intrinsic permeability: reflects only the medium characteristics. is independent of the
properties of the flowing fluid and depends only on the characteristics of the medium
• It is proportional to the square of the representative grain diameter of the medium,
and the constant of proportionality depends on porosity, packing, size distribution,
and shape of grains.
The permeability of a medium is measured in terms of hydraulic conductivity (also
known as the coefficient of permeability)
hydraulic conductivity: is equal to the volume of water which flows in unit time
through a unit cross-sectional area of the medium under a unit hydraulic gradient at
the prevailing temperature.
The hydraulic conductivity, therefore, has the dimensions of [Length/Time] and is
usually expressed as metres per day or metres per hour.
 Aquifers: Key Aquifer Properties
Good aquifer – High porosity + High permeability
• Sand and gravel, sandstone, limestone, fractured rock, basalt
Aquiclude, Confining bed, Aquitard – “impermeable” unit forming a barrier to
groundwater flow.
• Granite, shale, clay
It should be noted that an unsaturated medium would have lower hydraulic
conductivity because of the resistance to a flow of water offered by the air present in
the void spaces.

Transmissivity: It represents the amount of water which would flow through a unit
width of the saturated portion of the aquifer under a unit hydraulic gradient and at the
prevailing temperature.
It is a term generally used for confined aquifers, is obtained by multiplying the
hydraulic conductivity of an aquifer with the thickness of the saturated portion of the
aquifer.
 Aquifers: Key Aquifer Properties
Example 1: A ground water basin consists of 20 km2 of plains. The maximum
fluctuation of ground water table is 3 m. Assuming a specific yield of 15 per cent,
determine the available ground water storage.
Solution: Ground water storage = area of basin × depth of fluctuation × specific yield
= 20 × 106 × 3 × 0.15 = 9 × 106 m3
Example 2: In an aquifer whose area is 100 ha, the water table has dropped by 3.0
m. Assuming porosity and specific retention of the aquifer material to be 30 per cent
and 10 per cent, respectively, determine the specific yield of the aquifer and the
change in ground water storage.
Solution: Porosity = specific yield + specific retention
∴ Specific yield = porosity – specific retention = 30 – 10 = 20%.
Reduction in ground water storage = 100 × 104 × 3.0 × 0.2
= 60 × 104 m3.
 Flow of Water through Porous Media
• Ground water flows whenever
there exists a difference in head
between two points.
• This flow can either be laminar or
turbulent.
• Most often, ground water flows
with such a small velocity that the
resulting flow is laminar.
Turbulent flow occurs when large
volumes of water converge
through constricted openings as in
the vicinity of wells.

Based on a series of experiments conducted in the vertical pipe

filled with sand, Henry Darcy, a French engineer, in 1856
concluded that the rate of flow, Q through a column of saturated
sand is proportional to the difference in hydraulic head, Δh,
between the ends of the column and to the area of flow cross-
section A, and inversely proportional to the length of the column,
L.
 Flow of Water through Porous Media
Thus,
Q = KA Δh/L eq.1
Where, K is the constant of proportionality and is equal to the hydraulic
conductivity of the medium.
• Equation (1) is known as Darcy’s law and can also be written as:
V = K Δh/L eq. 2
where V is the specific discharge (or the apparent velocity of flow) and Δh/L is the
hydraulic gradient.
Expressed in general terms, Darcy’s law, Eq. (4.2), becomes

V = – K dh/ds eq. 3
in which, dh/ds is the hydraulic gradient which is negative, since h decreases in the
positive direction of the flow.
Thus, flow along the three principal co-ordinate axes can be described as
 Groundwater as a Storage Medium
For the water resources engineer groundwater is a very important water
resource for the following reasons:
• It is a reliable resource, especially in climates with a pronounced dry
season
• It is a bacteriologically safe resource, provided pollution is controlled
• It is often available in situ (wide-spread occurrence)
• It may supply water at a time that surface water resources are limited
• It is not affected by evaporation loss, if deep enough there is a large storage
capacity
• It can be easily managed
It also has a number of disadvantages:
• It is a strongly limited resource, extractable quantities are often low as
compared to surface water resources
• Groundwater recovery is generally expensive as a result of pumping costs
• Groundwater, if phreatic, is very sensitive to pollution
• Groundwater recovery may have serious impact on land subsidence or
salinization
 Flow of Water through Porous Media: Examples
Permeability = 60 m/day; Porosity = 30% (=0.3); elevation difference in two wells
1000 m distance apart = 1 m . What is the flow velocity into the well?

V = ( K x [( h1 - h2 ) / d)] x n )

V = (60 m/day x 1 m) / (1000 m x 0.3)

Permeability = 60 m/day
Porosity = 30% (=0.3)
Hydraulic gradient = 1 m / 1000 m

1m
Flow of Water through Porous Media

Darcy’s Law
 WELL HYDRAULICS
• A well is a hydraulic structure which, if
properly designed and constructed,
permits economic withdrawal of water
from an aquifer.
• When water is pumped from a well, the
water table (or the piezometric surface
in case of a confined aquifer) is
lowered around the well.
• The surface of a lowered water table
resembles a cone and is, therefore,
called the cone of depression.

• It is larger for wells in confined aquifers than for those in unconfined aquifers.
• All other variables remaining the same, the radius of influence is larger in aquifers with
higher transmissivity than in those with lower transmissivity.
• The difference, measured in the vertical direction, between the initial water table (or the
piezometric surface in the confined aquifer) and its lowered level due to pumping at any
location within the radius of influence is called the drawdown at that location.
Well yield is defined as the volume of water discharge, either by pumping or by free flow, per
unit time.
• Well yield per unit drawdown in the well is known as the specific capacity of the well.
 WELL INTERFERENCE
• If the zone of influence of two adjacent wells overlap (i.e., the wells are spaced
at distances smaller than the sum of their radii of influence), the wells affect
each other’s drawdown and discharge.
• This effect is due to what is known as well interference. As a result of well
interference, even though the total output (i.e., the discharge) of a multiple well
system increases, the efficiency of each well (measured in terms of the discharge
per unit drawdown) of the system decreases.
• Since the equation of flow in a confined aquifer is a linear one, one can use the
principle of superposition to obtain the resulting drawdown at a point in a well
field in which number of wells are being pumped simultaneously.
• This means, if si is the total drawdown at ith observation well on account of
pumping of N wells located in the well field, then: