How does ground water move underground?
1 Answer
Groundwater moves in pore space. The flow in a porous medium (subsurface) occurs between particles (sand, silt, gravel, etc. or a mix of these).
Explanation:
Groundwater moves in pore space. The flow in a porous medium (subsurface) occurs between particles (sand, silt, gravel, etc. or a mix of these).
If porosity (porous volume in a given subsurface volume) is high, groundwater moves fast as a rule of thumb. A simple velocity definition is provided for groundwater flow analysis. It is discharge velocity or specific discharge. It is defined as water discharge through a representative area of porous medium/representative total area.
Similar to surface flow, water flows from higher elevations to lower elevations in the subsurface as groundwater flow.