Term
| What is the infiltration capacity? |
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Definition
| It is the point at which the soil becomes saturated. |
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Term
| How does suction relate to the infiltration rate? |
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Definition
| As infiltration decreases, suction also decreases and vice versa. |
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Term
| What are the properties of soil that affect infiltration rates? |
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Definition
| porosity, water, minerals |
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Term
| What is the availably water capacity? |
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Definition
| It is the area on a graph between field capacity and the wilting point. |
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Term
| What type of soil can hold the most water, ie has the highest water capacity? |
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Definition
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Term
| How do you calculate the available water capacity? |
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Definition
| (AWC) = (Water content - Wilting point) times rooting depth. |
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Term
| What is Darcy's Law for unsaturated flow? |
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Definition
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Term
| What are controls on (q) flow rate through medium? |
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Definition
| What content that changes as the hydrophilic conductivity changes and suction head changes. Soil type |
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Term
| What is hydrological conductivity? |
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Definition
| It is the ability of water to move through porous medium. |
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Term
| Why does hydrolic conductivity change with moister content? |
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Definition
| As water penetrates, it fills up pores first then infiltrates. |
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Term
| How does the tension head (suction) act in GW? |
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Definition
| When the water is saturated the tentino head is = 0. When the ground is less then saturated it is < 0. When the ground water is over saturated it is > 0. |
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Term
| What type of soil can suck up more water? |
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Definition
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Term
| How do you calculate the hydrolic head, what is it composed of? |
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Definition
| The tension + elevation head. |
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Term
| What is the difference between field capacity (fc) and wilting point (wp)? |
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Definition
| fc is controlled by gravity and porosity. The only way to go below fc is by the wilting point. The wiling point is controlled by plant suction. |
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Term
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Definition
| It is a graph that shows the start and then the end of something. Like the wetting of soil and then the draining. |
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Term
| What would you expect to see on a hysteresis of infiltration? |
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Definition
| The suction would rapidly decrease by the amount of water would not change a lot because smaller pore spaces are filling up first. larger pore spaces start to fill so there would be an increase in water content and suction would not decrease as rapidly. As it returns to field capacity the little pores can block the big pores to cause the soil to drain at a liner rate. |
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Term
| What are characteristics of aquifers? |
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Definition
| Aquifer flow is heterogeneous (K is not constant), are anisotropee (K is different in different directions). |
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Term
| What is the assumption when making flow maps? |
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Definition
| The hydrolic head (k) is constant, the flow is constant and doesn't change directions. |
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Term
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Definition
| The lines in which the under water flows. Parallel to the water table. |
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Term
| What are equiproportional lines? |
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Definition
| Run perpendicular to the water table. Depicts hydrolic head (h) |
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Term
| What is hygroscopic water? |
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Definition
| The water the sticks to minerals, and can not be sucked up by plants. |
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Term
| What is capillary fringe? Why does it exist? |
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Definition
| The spot just about the water table. It occurs because the unsaturated soil on top of the water table acts like a sponge and sucks up some water. |
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Term
| What is the intermediate vadose zone? |
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Definition
| The intermediate vadose zone is between the capillary fringe and the root zone. |
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Term
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Definition
| Also known as the riparian zone, is the layer that has roots in it. |
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Term
| What is the ground what budget? |
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Definition
| input = recharge. output = pumping + run off + ET. Input - Output = change in storage. |
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Term
| What happens around a well? |
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Definition
| Cone of depression in the water table. |
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Term
| What happens to recharge/discharge/ and storage when you pump water out of a well? |
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Definition
| The recharge rate increases. The discharge and storage decrease because we are de-watering the aquifer. |
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Term
| How do you calculate the cone depression (CD)? |
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Definition
| CD = volume pumped / SY (significant yield) |
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Term
| What happens when we pump water out of a confined aquifer? |
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Definition
| The CD will be much larger, but it does not mean we are directly lowering the water table. |
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Term
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Definition
| It occurs when the land settles from the loss or water, it will not be able to fill back up with water. |
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Term
| What is the riparian zone? |
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Definition
| Transition between plant and aqua zone. There is greater biodiversity. |
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Term
| What are importants of the riparian zone? |
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Definition
| controls the chemicals that flow into the stream, stream bank stability, transitional ecosystem, buffer |
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Term
| What is the hyporheic zone? |
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Definition
"mixing zone" 3 different ways to define it.
Hydrology: Surface, temperature
Chemistry: oxygen and conductivity
Biology: greater biodiversity |
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Term
| Where can upwelling zones occur? |
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Definition
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Term
| What are the mechanisms that generate run off? |
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Definition
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Term
| What are different techniques to calculate overland flow? |
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Definition
| Hortonian and Saturation Excess |
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Term
| What is Hortonian overflow and what conditions could you use it? |
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Definition
| It is the main way water gets into the stream in arrid or urban areas. It ocurres when the water can not infiltrate the soil, so the water just flows directly in the river. |
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Term
| What is subsurface land flow (sssf)and where does it occur? |
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Definition
| It occurs when there is ground water mounding (riparian zones), difference in permiability in the ground, or macropores. |
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Term
| What is saturation overland flow? |
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Definition
| It occurs when the water table comes higher then the river causing the water to first drain down the land. |
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Term
| What is the (VSA) or the variable source area concept? |
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Definition
| It is the porpotion that generates watershed overland flow. It changes with time. As the source are flow increases the stream response increases. |
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Term
| What run off generation mechanism would have the highest rate of run off? |
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Definition
| (HOF) Hortonian - then Sat over flow - then subsurface land flow. |
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Term
| What are the three factors that influence the velocity of a stream? |
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Definition
| slope, depth (hydrolic radios), and friction (texture). |
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Term
| What is transmissivity when thinking about water flowing in 3d? |
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Definition
| It is the depth times hydrolic conductivity. |
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Term
| What is the importance of ground water? |
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Definition
-80 to 90 percent of fresh water
-base flow supports river and lakes
-stabilizes temperature.
-water qaulity
-riparian vegitation |
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Term
| What are the difference between ground water and stream water? |
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Definition
| Ground water has a greater residential time. |
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Term
| How is ground water and surface water related? |
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Definition
| There is a seasonal change in both. Water quality of the river is dirrectly influenced by the water quality of the GW. |
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Term
| What happens when the water table is lower than the stream? |
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Definition
| The stream well start to recharge the water table, causing the river to lower. |
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Term
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Definition
| It contains soils or rocks, that contain GW that can supply wells. |
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Term
| What are the two types of Aquifers and how do they differ? |
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Definition
| Unconfined aquifer has direct contact with the atmosphere. Confined Aquifer is confined by an aquaclude and does not have direct contact with the atmosphere. |
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Term
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Definition
| It is an impermeable layer in the ground. It confines aquifers. |
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Term
| What are two types of wells used to measure GW and how do they differ? |
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Definition
| Piezometer and well. A Piezometer is pressurized so the water level is higher than the actual GW and a well is not, so the water level in the well is the same level as the water table |
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Term
| How do you calculate specific yield (SY) in an unconfined aquifer? |
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Definition
| SY = Volume water released / serface area * the change in hydrolic head. |
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Term
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Definition
| It is the percent of water obtained from the soil. |
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Term
| If a soil is more pores, does it have a higher specific yield (SY)? |
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Definition
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Term
| What type of soil has the highest SY and what has the highest porosity? |
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Definition
| Sand has the highest SY and clay has the greatest porosity. |
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Term
| How do you calculate the SY in a confined aquifer? |
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Definition
| SY is equal to the change in pressure in the confined case. |
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Term
| What has more water per unit head, confined or unconfined aquifer and why? |
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Definition
| Unconfined aquifer has more because we are draining the water table directly. |
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Term
| What does (q) represent in Darcie's law? |
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Definition
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Term
| What does K represent in Darcie's law? |
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Definition
| Hydrolic Conductivity or saturated conductivity. |
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Term
| How do you calculate the total volume of discharge (Q)? |
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Definition
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Term
| What happens when you graph specific discharge (q) over the Hydraulic gradient (dh/dl) |
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Definition
| It should be a liner graph. The slope of the line is K (hydraulic conductivity.) |
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Term
| What re examples of aquiclude material? |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| This graph shows one way to calculate K hydraulic conductivity. |
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Term
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Definition
| Layer of soil that does not contain or transmit water |
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Term
| in water case (confined or unconfined) would you use a piezometer? |
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Definition
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Term
| What happens to the hydraulic conductivity (k) as the moister content increases? |
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Definition
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Term
| How do you separate quick flow graphs from base flow graphs? |
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Definition
| You can do so by looking at the chemical composition of the water in the water table and the chemical composition of the rain fall. |
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Term
| When does overland flow occure? |
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Definition
| When the rate of rain fall exceeds the infiltration rate. |
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