InsightsUnveiled

Ground water is the wter that occupies pores,cavities,cracks and other spaces in the crustal rocks and includes the water precipitated from the atmosphere which has percolated through the soil,water that has risen from deep magamtic sources or liberated during the igneous activity or that which is stored in sedimentary rock layers. Most ground water originates as recharge in upland areas,through infiltration.However,it discharges from the saturated zones back to ground surface in low lying areas,usually at springs/bottom of surface water bodies.Since,ground water always moves towards lower heads,these exist points are always at a lower elevation than the water table where ground water enters the system as recharge. Increasing depth of the earth's crust causes rock porosity and permeability to decrease.Pore fluids become hotter and more concentrated with the dissoved minerals as depth increases.Deeper than about 10 Km. ,the crust has low intrinsic permeability due to

Limestone is sedimentary rock formed from carbonate minerals especially calcite & dolomite.Quartzite is a hard,impermeable whitish or greyish quartzite rock cemented by silica.From the above question it can be derived that there is uniformity of structure in the two cases.In case of limestone terrain ,the rain water will form surface drainage and start dissociating the terrain. the rain water has formed carbonic acid,a weak aid but strong enough to dissolve calcium carbonate.Surface drainage dissapears underground due to formation of sink holes & swallow holes.Underground caves and caverns come into existence which collapses & erodes down forming a peni plain like surface with drainage reappearing on the surface as surface drainage. There is loss of water to groundwater which is evident from the fact that hard ground water prevails in limestone aquifers.Portion of the water is found in springs.Formation of limestone channels,closed depressions etc. form supplies f

Storm characteristics:- 1) Type and nature of storms and season:- Tropical cyclonic storms have torrential rainfall which is violent and lasts for few hours while rainfall in temperate cyclone is slow and continuous for many days with occasional heavy showers.Both types of rainfall will aid runoff after some time of it's commencement. In india monsoon season has the maximum rainfall and hence maximum runoff while in mediterrenean climate runoff will be maximized during winter season when there is maximum rainfall in this region.However,rainfall in summer will cause less runoff than it would have been in winter. 2) Intensity:- Low intensity rainfall storms over longer spells contributes to ground water storage and produce relatively less runoff and a high intensity storm or a smallere area covered by it increases runoff since the losses like infiltration and evaporation are less. 3) Antecedent precipitation an

the groundwater pollution depends on the local geology,groundwater flow patterns,pore scale process and molecular scale process.Contamination might spread rapidly within a high conductivity second lens or it might diffuse at a snail's pace through a low conductivity clay.By ground water pollution we men solutes dissolved in water that can render it unfit for our use or unfit for an ecosystem that the water enters.Most natural water contains some amount of dissolved substances which we think of as contaminants.For a contaminant to be true problem ,it must be present at a concentration that poses some significant risk to the health of the human population or to the ecosystem.the 2 sources of ground water pollution are as follows:- a)Point source; b)Non-point source. Point source :-Tanks used for storing fuels and chemicals leak undetected causing contamination.Example;-U.S. Environmental protection Agency estimated in 1996 about 318000 such releases. Sep

Agricultural landuse practice:- The quantities of water cycling in a catchment area is dependent upon the crop type,physical activities and works associated with cultivation and abstraction of water for irrigation.Over the growing season,millet have 22% less evaporation than other types allowing extra water to runoff.Farm roads and path's too aid quick runoff.Ploughing alters soil structure and compaction by the machinery reduces infiltration capacity thereby increasing overland flow. Urban and industrial development landuse:- Urbanization results in rapid runoff of rains rather than infiltration,evaporation or gradual movement towards ground water or rivers.The effect of urbanisation depends on the nature of catchment being urbanised,with the greatest effect with the more permeable the catchment. Afforestation:- In the south African catchment,runoff began to decrease 3 years after the Eucalyptus trees were planted and after 9 years runoff had falle

A spring is a concentrated discharge of groundwater appearing the ground surface as a current of flowing water.They occur when water table intersects the ground surface.A sprig is different from a seepage ina sense that in seepage water moves through the ground or other porous media to the ground surface or surface water bodies and that the movement of water in seepage is slower than that of the velocity of water flowing in a spring. Springs occur in several forms and have been classified on the basis of rock structure,discharge,temperature and variabilty.   Bryan divided all springs into following divisions:-   a)Those resulting from non-gravitational forces;&   b)Those resulting from gravitational forces.   Those resulting from non-gravitational forces:- These include volcanic springs associated with volcanic rocks and the fissure springs,resulting from fractures extending to great depths in the earth's crust.Such springs are usual

The landscape and the terrain chracterises,besies geology,are closely related to occurence,availability,quality and utilization of the usable water for diferent puroses by man from different ouces,eg.:- surface wtare,ground water etc.there is direct relationship betwen limestone reas also helps in digging of dug wells.If the limestons have enough porosity and are capped by sand stones layers,there is every posibilty for rich ground water reserves and the water is also naurally filtered while passing through the sand stone beds and hence this groundwater will be free from pollutants. Limestone areas are'nt suitable for dam or reservoir construction because it requires a lot of expensive engineering work.The geomorphological history of the glaciated landscape ,characterizes of different types of glacial deposits and landform characteristics help in searching and determining the interglacial valleys under the surficial ground material provide large and rich ground wa

Cycle in the strictest sense refers to a sequence of events which returns to it's starting point.Hydrological cycle in simple words refers to the cyclic movement of water in air,water and land which takes place by the change in it's phase from liquid to gas and again ack to liquid or solid(ice state). according to C.A.M.king(1996)- asystem is defined as a set of objects that are considered together by studying their relationships to each other and their individual attributes.   The earth system which is both an isolated system(those in which the boundaries for the input of energy and output or export of mass and matter are closed or fixed) on one hand and on the other hand.The functioning of the earth system is the sum of the simultaneous functioning of several subsystems of the earth system one of which is th hydrological cycle. Water which is the cheif and only component of the hydro

Water table is the upper level of the zone of saturation (ground water) in permeable rocks.It represents the surface at which the pressure in the ground water is equal to the atmosphereis pressure.It is situated below the zone of intermittent saturation.Level of sturation instead of water table is an appropiate term because the term water table indicates a horizontal surface which in fact rarely exists. Runoff is used to indicate pecipitation excess & is determined by deducting the loss from rainfall. The water table tends to sink as irt approaches a valley as runoff water readily escapes at the surface on the hillsides above the valley & drains off more rapidly.Interflow through beds of saturated permeable rocks occurs where ground water table is lower.   In Britain water table is lower in summer & higher in winter.This is because the rainfall in summer only moistens the dry upper layers which soon gets dried up due to evaporation o

Most ground water originates as recharge in upland areas,through infiltration.however,it discharges from saturated zones back to surface in low lying areas,usually at the springs/bottom of surface waters.Since,ground water always move towards usually at springs/bottom of surface waters. Since,ground water moves towards lower head,these exist points are always at a lower elevation than the water table where ground water enters the system as recharge. Increasing depth of the earth's crust causes rock porosity & permeability to decrease.pore fluids become hotter & more concentrated with dissolved minerals as depth increases.Deeper than about 10 Km.,the crust has low intrinsic permeability due to high confining pressures & ductile deformation of rocks. Depth shallower than about 6 Km. have high rock permeability & pore fluids can traverse flow paths of continental length scales.For Example:-In Australia,sandstone aquifers convey water for 11

Ground water is the water found in the pores,avities,cracks & other spaces in the crustal rocks.it is synonymous to phreatic water & is the most important source in any water supply. In it's natural state it is invariably moving which is governed by established hydraulic principles.The flow through the aquifers most of which are natural porous medium are expressed by Darcy's law . Theaore said, law states that the flowrate through the porous media is proportional to the head loss & inversely proportional to the length of the flow path.If the ground water table is assumed to be flowing through a cylindrical aquifer then ground water velocity or Darcy's velocity is defined as the discharge "Q" divided by the total cross sectional area of a cylinder "A". However,the aforesaid calculation ignores the fact that aquifer cross section "A" contains both solid materials & pores.therefore,round water velocity is

Forest cover gives protection for the soil from compaction by rain,allowing infiltration.some of the infiltration is due to increased root openings.Dense forest provides resistance to lateral flow of water encouraging infiltration.Heavy vegetation provides a layer of decaying vegetative matter hindering lateral flow velocities encouraging infiltration. Organic matter increases soil porosity by aiding soil aggregate formation although porosity also depends on soil particle size,it's packing.Plants however do'nt control the evaporation of intercepted water.Typically 30% - 40% of intercepted water is evaporated from forest when rain is going on. The lowland maritime tropical forests studied by Schelekens et al (1999) and Dykes(1997), loss for higher proportion of intercepted water during rainfall event.Different trees of the forest have different albedo ,hence different amount of energy is available for evaporation,in this manner forest regulate the amount

During precipitation even part of the rain is intercepted by leaves,stems,branches etc. of vegetation part or all of which is evaporated back into the atmosphere without participating in the land-bound portion of hydrological cycle.This is termed as interception loss. Interception loss=gross precipitation - net rainfall where,gross precipitation includes thoroughfall+stemflow the actors affecting interception loss from vegetation are:- 1)interception loss is higher when rainfalls on dry vegetation because interception storage capacity is higher initially but it decreases as vegetation gets etter,so does interception loss. 2)The air near the ground may not be satuated even during the condensation & rain drop formation high in the atmosphere which may lead to evaporation from leaf surface although interception storage cpacity is filled. 3)Other conditions remaining constsnt,high wind speed will cause high evapo