EESC 2203 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Aquifer, Capillary Action, Surface Tension

• School: Boston College
• Department: Earth & Environmental Sciences
• Course: EESC 2203
• Professor: Gabrielle David

Document Summary

Unsaturated zone - rains on surface and water starts to infiltrate and percolate down. Filling in pore spaces and all that pressure builds up and forces water down. Plants start to take this water up into roots, and at some point it gets hard for plants to pull water up. Water is adhering to soil, water pressure is too low, etc and plants can"t pull up water - takes too much energy. Fine textured soils hold more water: more surface area, creates tons of tiny pore spaces. Coarse textures - too easy for water to drain out for aquifer, however, coarse texture is easier to pull water out. Fine texture, not good at pulling water out. Organic-rich - like grassland soil - holds a lot of water. Soil: a lyatered residue of decomposed rock and organic. Matter left by weathering over an extended period of time. Groundwater called aquifer only if has sufficient supply for well.