What is groundwater?

What is surface water?

• Water stored deep in the ground

• Every lake, pond, river, stream, and ocean on Earth

• Water that evaporates back into the air

• Water used by farms for irrigation

What is groundwater?

• Water that runs off the soil into streams

• Water that gets soaked up by plants

• Water crammed in the tiny gaps between rocks, soils, and sediments under the ground

• Water that fills over a million bathtubs

What is an aquifer?

• A method of water conservation

• A body of surface water

• A type of water cycle

• A full body of groundwater

How big is the High Plains aquifer?

• 1,000 bathtubs

• 80,000 Olympic sized swimming pools

• 53 billion gallons

• 174,000 square miles

What is the water table?

• The bottom layer of an aquifer

• The top layer of the saturated zone

• The level underground where groundwater flows out into the surface

• The level underground where you first hit groundwater

What is the saturated zone?

• The area above the water table

• The area where water evaporates back into the air

• Below the water table where the ground is completely soaked with water

• The surface area of lakes and rivers

How does water become part of an aquifer?

• By evaporating and then condensing underground

• By being absorbed by plants and then released into the ground

• By running off the soil into streams and then seeping into the ground

• By traveling down through the surface deep underground until it reaches the water table

What is a spring?

• A body of surface water that dries up

• Any place where groundwater flows out into the surface

• A man-made well that draws water out of aquifers

• A season when aquifers are refilled

How much groundwater do American farms use every day?

• 53 billion gallons

• 80,000 gallons

• 53 million gallons

• 174,000 gallons

Can aquifers run out of water?

• Yes, if we use groundwater faster than the aquifers can refill

• No, because they are constantly refilled by rainwater

• No, because they contain an infinite amount of water

• Yes, but only during dry years