What is zone of aeration in groundwater?

Groundwater is all the water that has penetrated the earth’s surface and is found in one of two soil layers. The one nearest the surface is the “zone of aeration”, where gaps between soil are filled with both air and water. Below this layer is the “zone of saturation”, where the gaps are filled with water.

What is the zone of aquifer?

Groundwater is found in two zones. The unsaturated zone, immediately below the land surface, contains water and air in the open spaces, or pores. The saturated zone, a zone in which all the pores and rock fractures are filled with water, underlies the unsaturated zone.

What are the three zones of groundwater aquifers?

The unsaturated zone, capillary fringe, water table, and saturated zone.

What are the various zone of aeration?

They are vadose water present in the zone of aeration and groundwater present in the zone of saturation. The vadose water is further subdivided into three zones, i.e., soil water zone, intermediate zone and capillary zone.

What is the zone of aeration useful for?

The zone of aeration consists of the upper layers of soil in which there is air-filled porosity, pores or pockets filled with air rather than water. If toxic spills occur, chemicals move vertically through the zone of aeration and may penetrate the zone of saturation or ground water.

Is the zone of aeration an Aquiclude?

Porous means having void spaces between grains. In an unconfined aquifer the zone of saturation (all voids filled with water) lies above an aquiclude; the top of the zone of saturation is the water table. Above this is the zone of aeration (voids filled with air, though grains may be wet – coated with water).

Where is the vadose zone?

The vadose zone, also termed the unsaturated zone, extends from the top of the ground surface to the water table. The word Vadose means “shallow” in Latin.

What is another name for aquifer?

In this page you can discover 11 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for aquifer, like: groundwater, groundwaters, sediment, evaporite, surface-water, alluvium, ground-water, sedimentation, organic-rich, seawater and clastic.

Is clay an aquitard?

Clay usually acts as an aquitard, impeding the flow of water. Gravel and sand are both porous and permeable, making them good aquifer materials.

Why vadose zone is important?

It is of great importance in providing water and nutrients that are vital to the biosphere, however, and it is intensively used for the cultivation of plants, construction of buildings, and disposal of waste. The vadose zone is often the main factor controlling water movement from the land surface to the aquifer.

What is meant by vadose zone?

The vadose zone is the Earth’s terrestrial subsurface that extends from the surface to the regional groundwater table. The vadose zone has low water content relative to the saturated zone below the water table and is therefore commonly referred to as the unsaturated zone.

What is aquifer and its types?

Aquifers must not only be permeable but must also be porous and are found to include rock types such as sandstones, conglomerates, fractured limestone and unconsolidated sand, gravels and fractured volcanic rocks (columnar basalts).

What is the difference between Zone of saturation and zone of aeration?

The occurrence of groundwater is usually discussed by distinguishing between a zone of saturation and a zone of aeration. In the zone of saturation, the pores are entirely filled with water, while the zone of aeration has pores that are at least partially filled by air. Suspended water does occur in this zone.

Which is the upper limit of an aquifer?

Formations where the top of the saturated zone or water table define the upper limit of the aquifer are called unconfined aquifers.

What’s the difference between a water table and an aquifer?

This is a great way to illustrate the concept of how the ground, if it is permeable enough, can hold water but still stay solid. The upper surface of this water-filled area, or “zone of saturation”, is called the water table. The saturated area beneath the water table is called an aquifer, and aquifers are huge storehouses of water.

What do you call the top of an aquifer?

According to geological terms an Aquifer could be referred to as a body of saturated and streams ( Figure 1 ). The top of the water level in an aquifer is called the water table. An aquifer fills with water from rain or melted snow that drains into the ground. In certain areas,