WHAT IS GROUND WATER (FORMATION)?

Ground water is the present beneath earth’s surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formation. A unit of rock, sand, geologic formations of soil or an unconsolidated deposits
is called aquifer, when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock become completely saturated with water is called water table.

Ground water is formed through recharging process when the water from the surface is discharged and seeps into the ground and able to move underground through rock and soil due to connected pore spaces to form oases or wetlands. Ground water is often withdrawn for agricultural, domestic and industrial use by constructing and operating extraction wells. The study of the distribution and movement of groundwater is called Hydrology.

Ground water contains soil moisture, frozen soil, immovable water and deep geothermal or oil formation water. It is hypothesized to provide the lubrication required for movement of faults. Ground water is often cheaper, more convenient and less vulnerable to pollution that surface water. Therefore, it is commonly used for public water supplies.

Polluted ground water is less visible and more difficult to clean up than pollution in rivers and lakes most often as a result of improper waste disposal such as industrial and household chemicals and garbage landfills, excessive fertilizers and pesticides used in agriculture, industrial waste lagoons, tailings and process wastewater from mines, industrial fracking, oil field brine pits, leaking underground oil storage tanks and pipelines, sewage sludge and septic systems.