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CE - Water Cycle Part 2

Freshwater is a limited resource, comprising only about three percent of Earth's water, with lakes and swamps representing a small fraction. Groundwater plays a crucial role in the water cycle, influencing streams and habitats, and is stored in aquifers that can be replenished by precipitation. The water table marks the top of the saturated zone, and human activities like well pumping can significantly affect groundwater levels.

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Hubert Jay Fedalino Yubat
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8 views17 pages

CE - Water Cycle Part 2

Freshwater is a limited resource, comprising only about three percent of Earth's water, with lakes and swamps representing a small fraction. Groundwater plays a crucial role in the water cycle, influencing streams and habitats, and is stored in aquifers that can be replenished by precipitation. The water table marks the top of the saturated zone, and human activities like well pumping can significantly affect groundwater levels.

Uploaded by

Hubert Jay Fedalino Yubat
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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• To many people, streams and lakes are

the most visible part of the water cycle.


Not only do they supply the human
population, animals, and plants with the
freshwater they need to survive, but
they are great places for people to have
fun.
• Freshwater represents only about three
percent of all water on Earth and
freshwater lakes and swamps account
for a mere 0.29 percent of the Earth's
freshwater.
There are also vast amounts of water that are unseen—water
existing in the ground. And even though groundwater is
unseen, it is moving below your feet right now. As part of the
water cycle, groundwater is a major contributor to flow in
many streams and rivers and has a strong influence on river
and wetland habitats for plants and animals.
• Some of the precipitation that falls onto the
land infiltrates into the ground to become
groundwater. If the water meets the water
table (below which the soil is saturated), it
can move both vertically and horizontally.
Water moving downward can also meet more
dense and water-resistant non-porous rock
and soil, which causes it to flow in a more
horizontal fashion, generally towards
streams, the ocean, or deeper into the
ground.
The upper layer of the soil is the unsaturated zone, where water
is present in varying amounts that change over time, but does
not saturate the soil. Below this layer is the saturated zone,
where all of the pores, cracks, and spaces between rock particles
are saturated with water. The term groundwater is used to
describe this area. Another term for groundwater is "aquifer,"
although this term is usually used to describe water-bearing
formations capable of yielding enough water to supply peoples'
uses. Aquifers are a huge storehouse of Earth's water and people
all over the world depend on groundwater in their daily lives.
• The top of the surface where groundwater occurs
is called the water table. In the diagram, you can
see how the ground below the water table is
saturated with water (the saturated zone).
Aquifers are replenished by the seepage
of precipitation that falls on the land, but there
are many geologic, meteorologic, topographic,
and human factors that determine the extent and
rate to which aquifers are refilled with water.
Rocks have different porosity and permeability
characteristics, which means that water does not
move around the same way in all rocks. Thus,
the characteristics of groundwater recharge vary
all over the world.
• In an aquifer, the soil and rock is saturated
with water. If the aquifer is shallow enough
and permeable enough to allow water to
move through it at a rapid-enough rate, then
people can drill wells into it and withdraw
water. The level of the water table can
naturally change over time due to changes in
weather cycles and precipitation patterns,
streamflow and geologic changes, and even
human-induced changes, such as the
increase in impervious surfaces, such as
roads and paved areas, on the landscape.
• The pumping of wells can have a great deal
of influence on water levels below ground,
especially in the vicinity of the well, as this
diagram shows. Depending on geologic and
hydrologic conditions of the aquifer, the
impact on the level of the water table can be
short-lived or last for decades, and the water
level can fall a small amount or many
hundreds of feet. Excessive pumping can
lower the water table so much that the wells
no longer supply water—they can "go dry."

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