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| Sediment or rock that transmits water easily |
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| A location where water enters the ground and infiltrates down to the water table |
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| An aquifer that is separated from the Earth's surface by an overlying aquitard |
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| A location where groundwater flows back up to the surface, and may emerge at springs |
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| A circular depression in the land that forms when an underground cavern collapses |
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| Sinking elevation of the ground surface; the process may occur over an aquifer that is slowly draining and decreasing in volume because of pore collapse |
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| A group of two or more aquifers that are separated by aquitards or aquicludes |
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| The downward-pointing, cone-shaped surface of the water table in a location where the water table is experiencing draw-down because of pumping at a well |
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| The total volume of empty space in a material, usually expressed as a percentage |
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| also termed the unsaturated zone, is the portion of Earth between the land surface and the phreatic zone or zone of saturation |
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| An aquifer that intersects the surface of the Earth |
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| A natural outlet from which groundwater flows up onto the ground surface |
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| The slope of the water table |
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| the movement of saline water into freshwater aquifers. Most often, it is caused by ground-water pumping from coastal well |
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| The elevation to which water in an artesian system would rise if unimpeded |
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| The degree to which a material allows fluids to pass through it via an interconnected network of pores and cracks |
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| The region below the water table where pore space is filled with water |
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| confined aquifer containing groundwater that will flow upward through a well |
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| The boundary, approximately parallel to the Earth's surface that separates substrate in which groundwater fills the pores from substrate in which air fills the pores |
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| A region underlain by caves in limestone bedrock; the collapse of the caves creates a landscape of sinkholes separated by higher topography |
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| A fountain of steam and hot water that erupts periodically from a vent in the ground in a geothermal region |
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| a water well in which the water from the confined source aquifer flows naturally to the ground surface without benefit of mechanical lift equipment. |
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| Sediment or rock that transmits no water |
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| Sediment or rock that does not transmit water easily and therefore retards the motion of the water |
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| The thin subsurface layer in which water molecules seep up from the water table by capillary action to fill pores |
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| A quantity of groundwater that lies above the regional water table because an underlying lens of impermeable rock or sediment prevents the water from sinking down to the regional water table |
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| Heat and electricity produced by using the internal heat of the Earth |
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| a site for the disposal of waste materials |
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| The sum of evaporation from bodies of water and the ground surface and transpiration from plants and animals |
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| A hydrological formula used by scientists and land managers to determine water surpluses and deficits in a given area |
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| overflow: the occurrence of surplus liquid (as water) exceeding the limit or capacity |
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| Large particles, such as sand, pebbles, or cobbles, that bounce or roll along a stream bed |
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| The process in which water flowing through a channel cuts into the substrate and deepens the channel relative to its surroundings |
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| A snake-like curve along a stream's course |
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| A pair of low ridges that appear on either side of a stream and develop as a result of the accumulation of sediment deposited naturally during flooding |
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| A cross-sectional image showing the variation in elevation along the length of a river |
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| The average time between successive geologic events |
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| A measure of the amount of heat that must be added to a material to change its temperature |
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| The region that collects water that feeds into a given drainage network |
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| A stream in which groundwater discharges contribute significantly to the streamflow volume |
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| Tiny solid grains carried along by a stream without settling to the floor of the channel |
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| What happens when different rocks in an outcrop undergo weathering at different rates |
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| A drainage network whose interconnecting streams resemble the pattern of branches connecting to a deciduous tree |
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| Wedges of sediment formed at a river mouth when the running water of the stream enters standing water, the current slows, the stream loses competence, and sediment settles out |
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| A wedge-shaped deposit of sediment on the inside bank of a meander |
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| calculated to be the level of flood water expected to be equaled or exceeded every 100 years on average |
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| A resource that can be replaced by nature within a short time span relative to a human life span |
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| Ions dissolved in a stream's water |
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| A line marking a boundary between an upland region and a plane; sometimes marked by a series of waterfalls on rivers that cross it |
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| A drainage system that develops across a landscape of parallel valleys and ridges so that major tributaries flow down the valleys and join a trunk stream that cuts through the ridge |
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| The outside bank of the channel wall of a meander, which is continually undergoing erosion |
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| The process by which water on the ground surface enters the soil |
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| A drainage network in which the streams join each other at right angles because of a rectangular grid of fractures that breaks up the ground and localizes channels |
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| A meander that has been cut off yet remains filled with water |
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