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Definition
| Porous, water-saturated layers of sand, gravel, or bedrock that can yield an economically significant amount of water. |
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Definition
| Purification of salt water or brackish (slightly salty) water by removal of dissolved salts. |
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Definition
| Condition in which an area does not get enough water because of lower-than-normal precipitation or higher-than-normal temperatures that increase evaporation. |
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Definition
| Conversion of a liquid into a gas. |
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Definition
| Flat valley floor next to a stream channel. For legal purposes, the term often applies to any low area that has the potential for flooding, including certain coastal areas. |
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Definition
| Water that sinks into the soil and is stored in slowly flowing and slowly renewed underground reservoirs called aquifers; underground water in the zone of saturation, below the water table. |
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Definition
| Natural replenishment of an aquifer by precipitation, which percolates downward through soil and rock. |
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Definition
| Any area of land allowing water to pass through it and into an aquifer. See aquifer, natural recharge. |
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Definition
| Surface runoff of water that generally can be counted on as a stable source of water from year to year. S |
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Definition
| Movement of salt water into freshwater aquifers in coastal and inland areas as groundwater is withdrawn faster than it is recharged by precipitation. |
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Definition
| Flowing body of surface water. Examples are creeks and rivers. |
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Definition
| Slow or rapid sinking of part of the earth's crust that is not slope-related. |
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Definition
| Water flowing off the land into bodies of surface water. |
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Definition
| Precipitation that does not infiltrate the ground or return to the atmosphere by evaporation or transpiration. |
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Definition
| Upper surface of the zone of saturation, in which all available pores in the soil and rock in the earth's crust are filled with water. |
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Definition
| Land area that delivers water, sediment, and dissolved substances via small streams to a major stream (river). |
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Definition
| Zone in soil that is not saturated with water and that lies above the water table. See water table, zone of saturation. |
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Term
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Definition
| Area where all available pores in soil and rock in the earth's crust are filled by water. See water table, zone of aeration. |
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