(Physical geology 1303)
Possible Test Questions
Unit 6 GROUNDWATER SYSTEM
(Revised 7/16)
Groundwater Generalities
1. About what percentage of Earth’s water is available as fresh water?
Three General Classifications of Groundwater
2. What is potable water?
3. How is connate water different from “potable water”? (Discuss connate water formation)
For Water to Enter the Earth There Must Be an Opening
4. In regards to rocks and soils, compare pore space with porosity?
Varieties of Porosity: Intergranular Porosity
5. What type of porosity is associated with clastic sediments and clastic rocks?
Varieties of Porosity: Dissolution Porosity
6. What type of rock must be present for solution cavities (like caves) to develop? (Hint: not
sandstone)
Moving Water Within the Earth
7. What is the difference between permeability and porosity?
Groundwater Misconceptions:
8. Describe the volume of groundwater associated with very large underground rivers and lakes.
9. Describe how water dowsers find places to drill for groundwater.
Groundwater Generalities
10. Are there large areas of land on Earth that have no ground water?
11. At what depth is most useable groundwater found?
Groundwater Terms
12. What is the difference between a zone of aeration (vadose zone) and a saturated zone?
13. What is the difference between a water table and a saturated zone?
14. What is the effect of an aquiclude (aquitard or confining layer) on groundwater?
Perched Aquifer Properties
15. How does a perched aquifer differ from an unconfined aquifer? (Reference extent of aquitard)
Water Well Levels (This will be on the Exam- Guaranteed)
16. Describe the water well level differences (in the pipe) between the following: unconfined aquifer
well vs. an artesian well vs. an artesian flowing well. (See drawings of study guide)
Earth Materials That Make the Best Aquifers
17. What types of sediments and rocks make the best aquifers?
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Earth Materials That Make the Best Aquitards
18. What type of rocks and sediments makes the best aquitards?
Water Extraction
19. What water property prevents us from achieving 100% water extraction?
Some Texas Aquifers
20. What is the host rock for the Edwards Aquifer near San Antonio and Austin?
21. What is the potential problem with the High Plains (Ogallala) Aquifer of the Texas panhandle?
Local Aquifers
22. Describe the quality of water from the local aquifers that include present and ancient barrier islands
and the local Pleistocene fluvial system.
23. Describe the water qualities of the Goliad formation near Sinton.
Local Groundwater Quality Problems
24. Discuss the qualities of local clays for filtering surface water as it enters a local aquifer, especially
in regards to dissolved iron content.
25. What is “hard water” and what effect does this have on hot water heaters and pipes?
26. What are some of the major contaminants of local area aquifers?
Terms Associated With Groundwater Contamination (Guaranteed Exam Question)
27. Know the difference between leaching and leachate.
Cone of Depression
28. Draw and describe a “cone of depression”
Texas Water Laws
29. Be able to defend yourself from lawsuits by explaining the TX “rule of capture”, in regards to your
pumping of large quantities of groundwater. What would you tell the accuser?
Groundwater: Oil and Gas
30. Describe the “vertical positioning” of oil, gas and water in a petroleum reservoir.
Acid Groundwater
31. How can acid be created with rainfall?
Caves
32. What is the host rock for most caves? GUARANTEED EXAM QUESTION
Local Texas Caves to Visit
33. Distinguish between stalactites and stalagmites
Sink Holes
34. How do sinkholes develop?
Karst Topography
35. Describe required rainfall amounts needed for karst topography.
Groundwater That Is Hot
36. What is a geyser?
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SEE BELOW FOR DAILY QUIZZES
Open Notes and Open Book Daily Quiz 9 (Unit 6 Groundwater)
Using the word bank below: please clearly write the correct answer number
All answers found using the text book
IF YOU TARDY (arrived after class time start), PLEASE PLACE AN “X” AS THE ANSWER FOR QUESTION A
A. (Page 176)
If the US would eventually turn to exploit its oil shales in the Western States of Colorado, Utah and
Wyoming, with today’s processes, about how much oil could be recovered?
B. (Page 314)
What percentage of US groundwater is used for agriculture purposes? ______
C. (Page 314)
Ground water accounts for what percentage of the world’s water? _____
D. (Page 322 - 323)
Groundwater seeping from a vertical crack in a cave’s ceiling may form a vertical sheet of rock
called a: ________
IF YOU PLAN TO LEAVE CLASS EARLY, PLEASE PLACE AN “X” AS THE ANSWER FOR QUESTION E
E. (Page 334-335)
Approximately
(%) of the world’s current energy need could be met by geothermal energy.
Open Notes and Open Book Daily Quiz 10 (Unit 6 Groundwater)
Using the word bank below: please clearly write the correct answer number
All answers found using the text book
IF YOU TARDY (arrived after class time start), PLEASE PLACE AN “X” AS THE ANSWER FOR QUESTION A
A. (Page 176)
About how many barrels of oil might be recovered from the Athabaska tar sands of Alberta
Canada?
B. (Page 326)
Within the Houston area, how much ground subsidence was caused by ground water removal? ____
C. (Figure 2, Page 329)
Which part of Texas has a large area with the highest concentration of dissolved arsenic within its
groundwater? ____
D. (Page 331)
Hard water is commonly found in areas underlain by _____
IF YOU PLAN TO LEAVE CLASS EARLY, PLEASE PLACE AN “X” AS THE ANSWER FOR QUESTION E
E. (Page 331)
Where are 1,000 of the US’s 1,100 hot springs located?
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