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The Water Cycle: Infiltration

Ground water begins as precipitation

Anywhere in the world, a portion of the water that falls as rain and snow infiltrates into the subsurface soil and rock. How much infiltrates depends greatly on a number of factors. Infiltration of precipitation falling on the ice cap of Greenland might be very small, whereas, as this picture of a stream disappearing into a cave in southern Georgia, USA shows, a stream can act as a direct funnel right into ground water!

Some water that infiltrates will remain in the shallow soil layer, where it will gradually move vertically and horizontally through the soil and subsurface material. Eventually, it might enter a stream by seepage into the stream bank. Some of the water may infiltrate deeper, recharging ground-water aquifers. If the aquifers are porous enough to allow water to move freely through it, people can drill wells into the aquifer and use the water for their purposes. Water may travel long distances or remain in ground-water storage for long periods before returning to the surface or seeping into other water bodies, such as streams and the oceans.

Factors affecting infiltration

• Precipitation: The greatest factor controlling infiltration is the amount and characteristics (intensity, duration, etc.) of precipitation that falls as rain or snow. Precipitation that infiltrates into the ground often seeps into streambeds over an extended period of time, thus a stream will often continue to flow when it hasn't rained for a long time and where there is no direct runoff from recent precipitation.
• Soil characteristics: Some soils, such as clays, absorb less water at a slower rate than sandy soils. Soils absorbing less water result in more runoff overland into streams.
• Soil saturation: Like a wet sponge, soil already saturated from previous rainfall can't absorb much more ... thus more rainfall will become surface runoff.
• Land cover: Some land covers have a great impact on infiltration and rainfall runoff. Vegetation can slow the movement of runoff, allowing more time for it to seep into the ground. Impervious surfaces, such as parking lots, roads, and developments, act as a "fast lane" for rainfall - right into storm drains that drain directly into streams. Agriculture and the tillage of land also changes the infiltration patterns of a landscape. Water that, in natural conditions, infiltrated directly into soil now runs off into streams.
• Slope of the land: Water falling on steeply-sloped land runs off more quickly and infiltrates less than water falling on flat land.
• Evapotranspiration: Some infiltration stays near the land surface, which is where plants put down their roots. Plants need this shallow ground water to grow, and, by the process of evapotranspiration, water is moved back into the atmosphere.

Subsurface water

As precipitation infiltrates into the subsurface soil, it generally forms an unsaturated zone and a saturated zone. In the unsaturated zone, the voids—that is, the spaces between grains of gravel, sand, silt, clay, and cracks within rocks—contain both air and water. Although a lot of water can be present in the unsaturated zone, this water cannot be pumped by wells because it is held too tightly by capillary forces. The upper part of the unsaturated zone is the soil-water zone. The soil zone is crisscrossed by roots, openings left by decayed roots, and animal and worm burrows, which allow the precipitation to infiltrate into the soil zone. Water in the soil is used by plants in life functions and leaf transpiration, but it also can evaporate directly to the atmosphere. Below the unsaturated zone is a saturated zone where water completely fills the voids between rock and soil particles.

Infiltration replenishes aquifers

Natural refilling of deep aquifers is a slow process because ground water moves slowly through the unsaturated zone and the aquifer. The rate of recharge is also an important consideration. It has been estimated, for example, that if the aquifer that underlies the High Plains of Texas and New Mexico—an area of slight precipitation—was emptied, it would take centuries to refill the aquifer at the present small rate of replenishment. In contrast, a shallow aquifer in an area of substantial precipitation such as those in the coastal plain in south Georgia, USA, may be replenished almost immediately.

Artificial recharge gives natural infiltration a push

People all over the world make great use of the water in underground aquifers all over the world. In fact, in some places, they pump water out of the aquifer faster than nature replenishes it. In these cases, the water table, below which the soil is saturated and possibly able to yield enough water that can be pumped to the surface, can be lowered by the excessive pumping. Wells can "go dry" and become useless.

In places where the water table is close to the land surface and where water can move through the aquifer at a high rate, aquifers can be replenished artificially. For example, large volumes of ground water used for air conditioning are returned to aquifers through recharge wells on Long Island, New York. Aquifers may be artificially recharged in two main ways:

• Rapid-infiltration pits: One way is to spread water over the land in pits, furrows, or ditches, or to erect small dams in stream channels to detain and deflect surface runoff, thereby allowing it to infiltrate to the aquifer
• Ground-water injection: The other way is to construct recharge wells and inject water directly into an aquifer

This picture shows rapid infiltration basins (photograph courtesy of Water Conserv II facility, Orlando, Florida) in Orlando, Florida. The water put into these basins recharges the shallow surficial aquifer and is used to irrigate local citrus crop fields.

Natural and artificial recharge of ground water

Sources and more information

Choose a water-cycle topic

A - Storage in ice and snow B - Precipitation C - Snowmelt runoff to streams D - Infiltration E - Ground-water discharge F - Ground-water storage G - Water storage in oceans H - Evaporation

I - Condensation J - Water storage in the atmosphere K - Evapotranspiration L - Surface runoff M - Streamflow N - Springs O - Freshwater storage P - Sublimation

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