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Week Three Groundwater Lab Report

Week Three Groundwater Lab Report

Answer the lab questions for this week and summarize the lab experience using this form.

Carefully read ch. 12 of Geoscience Laboratory.

Complete this week’s lab by filling in your responses to the questions from the Geoscience Laboratory. Select answers are provided for you in red font to assist you with your lab work. Although you are only required to respond to the questions in this worksheet, you are encouraged to answer others from the text on your own.

Questions are from Geoscience Laboratory, 5th ed. (p. 213–226), by T. Freeman, 2009, New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. Reprinted with permission.

Lab Questions

12.2 (A) How many cubic kilometers of water reside within groundwater?

Around 8.4 million cubic kilometers

12.2 (B) How many more times abundant is groundwater than water on land?

It is 42 times more abundant than water on land.

12.7 If, for the model in Figure 12.11, h1 were 506 ft, h2 were 497 ft, and l were 150 ft, what would be the hydraulic gradient (in percent) between well #1 and well #2?

Answer: 6 %

12.11 If contaminants were to find their way into groundwater at Acme Industries, in which well would those contaminants be more likely to appear—the well at the Smith farmhouse, or the well at the Jones farmhouse?

Jones Farmhouse

12.18 (A) Which of the six wells in Figure 12.25 in chapter 12 should be flowing artesian wells?

Four, five, and six

In Figures 12.19A and B, two depressions are occupied by water, whereas others are dry.

12.19 (A) Explain this presence and absence of ponds in these two figures.

The ponds lacking water most likely have an impermeable bottom. So water from the water table are not able to fill into the depression.

12.19 (B) If the two ponds were perennial (i.e., year-round) ponds, because of intersecting the water table, how would the presence or absence of water in the other depressions differ from that which is shown?

The ponds that intersect the water table will have water. The impermeable sediments would not allow any water into the ponds.

12.20 Judging from what you learned from information in Figure 12.19A in chapter 12, how might one seal a leaking stock pond? Hint: We’re talking three steps here, with steps #1 and #2 being the draining and restoring pond water.

After draining the pond you can use a liner made of heavy material to line the pond bottom and sides. They make material just for this purpose.

12.21 Examine Figure 12.22. At a glance several ponds might be mistaken for stock ponds. However, there is evidence indicating that the large pond at coordinates P-5 is surely a sinkhole. What is that evidence? Hint: The evidence appears in the relationship between the pond and a man-made feature.

The man made feature is a road which appears to have been built around the sink hole. The road looks like it originally went straight.

12.25 Do water levels in these three lakes (as well as others) appear to be governed by the vagaries of spotty rainfall and random surface drainage, or do they appear to mark systematic elevations on a water table? Hint: Notice the elevations of the bottoms of dry sinkholes relative to the water levels in ponds.

It looks like they are governed by the water table.

Lab Summary

Address the following in a 100- to 200-word summary:

• Summarize the general principles and purpose of the lab. • Explain how this lab helped you better understand the topics and concepts addressed this week. • Describe what you found challenging about this lab. • Describe what you found interesting about this lab.

Write your summary here:

This lab has helped me to better grasp hydraulic conductivity and the issues that happen within our ground water. I have a better understanding between the relationships of aquifer depletion and ground water abundance. I was very interested in learning a little more about sink holes and their relationship to aquifers, especially since they seem to be popping up a lot in the news lately. My most challenging part of the lab actually had nothing to do with the lab or the material, and that was just finding the time to sit down and do the lab.