MODULE – 5

Modern tools and geophysical methods

AQUIFER

An aquifer is a large body of permeable material where groundwater is present in the

saturated zone. It is a geologic formation that is water bearing or saturated with water and is
capable of yielding sufficient quantity of water for exploitation. Aquifer serves as a
transmission conduit from storage reservoir. It transports water from recharge area to surface
bodies of water and other collecting devices. Good aquifers are those with high permeability
such as poorly cemented sands, gravels, and sandstones or highly fractured rock. Large
aquifers can be excellent sources of water for human usage
Aquitard- A saturated strata which yields inappreciable quantity of water compared to an
aquifer, but through which appreciable leakage of water is possible, is known as
aquitard or a semi-confining layer.
Aquiclude- An aquiclude is a saturated bed formation which yields inappreciable quantity
of water and does not permit any appreciable leakage. An impermeable layer of rock that
does not allow water to move through it. Some shales, for example, have such low
permeability that they effectively form an aquiclude
Aquifuge- A mass of rock matrix which neither transmits nor store water in significant
quantity is called an aquifuge.
Aquifers can be of two types:
1. Confined aquifer: If the water within an aquifer is confined i.e., held under
pressure by an overlying impervious strata, the aquifer is known as confined
aquifer. The confining bed has a significantly lower hydraulic conductivity than
the aquifer.
Artesian aquifer is a confined aquifer developed in suitable geological situations
where the piezometric surface is above the groundwater level. A well in such an
aquifer flows without pumping. The imaginary surface to which water rises in well
tapping the artesian aquifer is known as piezometric surface.
2. Unconfined aquifer: If the aquifer is exposed to atmosphere or possesses free
surface open to the atmosphere, it is termed as unconfined aquifer. There will be a
water table in an unconfined aquifer. Sometimes called water table aquifer. The
term phreatic aquifer is also frequently applied to denote an unconfined aquifer.
 Unconfined aquifers usually receive recharge water directly from surface, from
precipitation or from a body of surface water (e.g. a river, stream or lake) which is
in hydraulic connection with it.
3. Perched aquifer: A special case of an unconfined aquifer is the perched aquifer
that occurs whenever an impervious (or relatively impervious) layer of limited
horizontal area is located between the water table of a phreatic aquifer and the
ground surface.

VERTICAl or SUBSURFACE DISTRIBUTION OF GROUNDWATER

The subsurface occurrence of groundwater may be divided into zone of aeration
and saturation separated by the water table.
1. Zone of aeration/ unsaturated zone ; the zone below the ground surface
and water table is known as zone of aeration .It consist of pores occupied partially
by water and partially by air. It is divided into 3 sub zones
(a) Soil water zone: The belt of soil water which constitutes the upper
portion of the zone of aeration is limited to the surface layer penetrated by roots. Its
thickness varies with soil type and vegetation. The belt of soil water is the great
reservoir of available root moisture upon which plant life depends. The water of the
zone of aeration includes stored water occurs as attached films on the surface of
openings and as wedge shaped bodies at the junctions between interstices. The
water here occurs in thin films of moisture known as hygroscopic water which is
remained adsorbed on the fine grained soil particles.

(b) Intermediate Vadose Zone: This zone extends from the lower edge
of the soil-water zone to the upper limit of the capillary zone (figure).
The thickness may vary from zero, where the bounding zones merge
with a high water table approaching ground surface, to more than 100
m under deep water table conditions.
© Capillary zone: The capillary zone (or capillary fringe) extends from the
water table up to the limit of capillary rise of water. The water of the fringe is held
above the water table by capillarity, which is defined as the property of tubes with
hairline openings when immersed in water to raise and hold water above the static
level of the water in which they are immersed. This water may be denoted as
‘capillary water or fringe water’.
2. Zone of saturation: In the zone of saturation all the interstices/openings are
filled with water under hydrostatic pressure. Hence, the porosity provides direct
measure of the water contained per unit volume. It is from this zone that water is
available for the development of satisfactory water supply system.
Water bearing properties of rocks or aquifer
 Porosity; Porosity (η) is a measure of the interstices or voids or pore
spaces present in a rock formation. It is defined as the percentage of ratio
of volume of voids (Vv) to the total volume (V) of the rock mass. This
determines the amount of water that a rock can contain.
 η = ( Vv / V ) * 100
where, η = Porosity in %
Vv= Volume of voids
V= Total Volume of Rock
 Permeability is a measure of the degree to which the pore spaces are
interconnected, and the size of the interconnections. The permeability of
rock is its capacity to transmit water under differential pressure, and is
measured by the rate at which it will transmit water through a unit cro
section under unit pressure differential per unit distance.
 Specific yield (effective porosity): It may be defined as the ratio
expressed as a percentage of the volume of the water, which after being
saturated can be drained by gravity to the total volume of fully saturated
aquifer material.
Sy = (Wy / V) *100
Where, Sy = Specific yield in %
Wy = Volume of water drained by gravity
V = Total Volume of aquifer.
 Specific retention: It may be defined as a percentage of ratio of the
volume of water retained by molecular and surface tension forces, after
saturation against the forces of gravity to its own
volume. It decreases with increase in size of grains & assortment.
Sr= 100 Wr / V
Where, Sr = Specific retention
Wr =the volume occupied by retained water
V= Total Volume of rock or soil.
 Transmissibility (T): This is defined as the rate of flow of water at the
prevailing field temperature under a unit hydraulic gradient through a unit
width of aquifer and extending through entire saturated thickness of aquifer.
It is expressed inm2/ day or m2 / second. It is defined as the product of the
hydraulic conductivity and the saturated thickness of aquifer.
T= Kb
Where T = Transmissibility
 K = hydraulic conductivity
b = thickness of the aquifer.
 Storage coefficient or Storativity (S): The storage coefficient is
defined as the volume of water that an aquifer releases from or takes into
storage per unit surface area of aquifer per unit change
in the component of head normal to that surface.
Storativity (S) = Volume of water / (Unit area X Unit Head change) S
= m3/ (m2 X m)
Factors affecting on permeabilty of rocks
 Rock Structure: The permeability of a rock is influenced by its structure. For
example, rocks with a high degree of fracturing or faulting have a higher permeability
than those without. This is because the fractures provide a pathway for fluid flow.
Similarly, rocks with a high degree of sorting and packing have a low permeability
because the pore spaces are filled with small grains.
 Mineralogy: The mineralogy of a rock can also affect its permeability. Rocks with
high clay content tend to have low permeability due to the small pore spaces between
clay particles. In contrast, rocks with high quartz content tend to have higher
permeability due to the larger pore spaces between quartz grains.
 Porosity: The amount of pore space in a rock is another critical factor that affects
permeability. Rocks with high porosity tend to have higher permeability because there
is more space for fluid flow. Conversely, rocks with low porosity have low permeability
due to the limited space available for fluid flow.
 Pressure and Temperature: The permeability of a rock is also influenced by
pressure and temperature. As pressure increases, the pore spaces in the rock can become
compressed, resulting in reduced permeability. Similarly, high temperatures can cause
mineral grains to expand, reducing the pore space and permeability.
 Fluid Properties: The properties of the fluid also play a role in determining
permeability. Fluid viscosity, density, and composition can all affect the ability of the
fluid to flow through the rock. For example, highly viscous fluids have a harder time
flowing through small pore spaces, resulting in reduced permeability.
 Grain size : The larger and more spherical the grains, the larger and more uniform
the pores .Larger and more uniform pores allow fluids to flow more easily than smaller
 and more irregular pores. Therefore, grain size and shape affect permeability directly
by influencing pore size and shape.
 Grain sorting and packing of porous medium ;well sorted and well packed
grains have lower porosity and permeability than poorly-sorted and poorly-packed
grains because they have smaller and fewer pores.

Water bearing properties of igneous sedimentary or metamorphic

rocks
 Crystalline rocks (Igneous and Metamorphic rocks) are hard and compact. Rocks like
granites, quartzites and hard schists are usually impermeable because of their texture
and do not form good aquifers.
 Basalt, Gabbro, Granite, Marble are favorable water bearing rocks. In Basalt,
intertrappean flows cause various aquifer formations. Volcanic rocks like Basalt are
highly permeable because of their interconnected weathered zones, vesicles, cavities,
joints, fractures and other networks form good aquifers. Large quantities of
groundwater move and collect in these rocks and extracted through wells freely.
IGNEOUS ROCKS AS AQUIFERS: - The intrusive igneous rocks like
granites, syenites etc., are generally very compact and dense and hence are non-porous.
They are barren groundwater under normal conditions. However when they are
traversed by fissures or cracks, they may be capable of holding some groundwater
quantities. Even these cracks and fissures die out with depth, and as such, there is
absolutely no possibility of getting any groundwater in these rocks at depths greater
than 80-100mts.
The extrusive igneous rocks also exhibit great variations in their water-bearing
properties. Basic igneous rocks like basalts are generally rich in cavities and contraction
cracks; and as such may become permeable and sources of groundwater. Acidic igneous
rocks like rhyolites may or may not contain groundwater, because such rocks although
generally possess interstices, but may be filled up with ash and other material, and
hence the uncertainty.
METAMORPHIC ROCKS AS AQUIFERS: - Non-foliated metamorphic
rocks like Marble and Quartzite are generally impermeable, except along the original
bedding, if the same is not completely destroyed during metamorphism. Foliated
metamorphic rocks like Slates, Schist, Phyllites and sometimes even Gneiss may
contain some good amount of Groundwater due to their being highly fractured.
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS AS AQUIFERS: - Among the Sedimentary rocks,
Gravels possess the highest water retaining as well as water yielding capacities. This is
truer in case of loose and weakly cemented coarse gravels. In general, next to Gravel,
the other Sedimentary rocks in their successive order of decreasing water bearing
capacity are;
loose sand, sandstone, limestone etc. Shale (Clay) is the poorest in absorbing water,
being impermeable although porous, and hence classified as aquicludes. Among
sandstones, the water-bearing capacity depends much upon their texture and nature of
cementing material. Coarse-grained sandstone may be good aquifers. Whereas fine
grained sandstone may prove to be the poorest aquifers. The water-bearing capacity of
limestone depends much upon the presence of solution channels, crevices, fissures and
other such opening in the rock. Hence, fissured and cracks limestones may prove to be
excellent aquifers and other compacted limestones may prove to be totally
unproductive.