Tag Archives: groundwater flow

Contrails, analogues, and visualizing groundwater flow

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How to picture groundwater flow beneath the surface.

Analogues and analogies.  Standard dictionaries define these as a comparison, correspondence, or similarity between one thing and another, that can apply to concepts, ideas or physical entities. They are tools, used to illustrate concepts, particularly abstract ideas, to help explain phenomena or theories. Science makes frequent use of analogies. It does so because many phenomena that it attempts to investigate and explain extend beyond normal human experience, beyond what is visible to the unaided eye, beyond what we can touch.  Well-chosen analogies can help us understand the universe without, and the universe within. Continue reading

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A misspent youth serves to illustrate groundwater flow

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The mystery of groundwater flow solved!

Groundwater is always on the move. Under some conditions, in fractures or other large conduits, it can move quickly; almost at a walking pace. Under other conditions it moves inexorably slowly, like fractions of a millimeter a year. Regardless, it is always compelled to move. Movement requires energy.  Where does this energy come from?  What drives the flow of groundwater?  Answers to these questions provide the foundations to the science of hydrogeology. Continue reading

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The Architecture of Connected Holes; A Different Way to Look at the Liquid Earth

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2nd in the Series on Groundwater

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We commonly differentiate the solid earth in terms of its architecture, whether it is the foundations of great mountain ranges, or the solidified magmas that underpinned ancient volcanoes.  All rocks, whether layered sedimentary rocks or massive intrusive granites, have unique characteristics that define their physical, chemical and biological make up – their architecture.

WE can also think of groundwater in terms of its own architecture.  The productivity of an aquifer depends first and foremost on its porosity and permeability.  We can use these two fundamental properties to define the architecture of earth materials.

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