- Artesian aquifer
:"See
Great Artesian Basin for the water source in Australia."An artesian aquifer is a confined aquifer containing
groundwater that will flow upwards through a well without the need forpump ing. Water may even spurt out of the ground if the natural pressure is high enough. An aquifer provides the water for an artesian well. An aquifer is a layer of soft rock, like limestone or sandstone, that absorbs water from an inlet path. Porous stone is confined between impermeable rocks or clay. This keeps the pressure high, so when the water finds an outlet, it overcomes gravity and goes up instead of down.In recharging aquifers, this happens because the
water table at its recharge zone is at a higherelevation than the head of the well."
Fossil water " aquifers can also be artesian if they are under sufficient pressure from the surrounding rocks. This is similar to how many newly tappedoil well s are pressurized.Origin
Artesian wells were named after the former province of
Artois inFrance , where many artesian wells were drilled byCarthusian monks since1126 . [Frances Gies and Joseph Gies , "Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel" subtitled "Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages". Harper Perennial, 1995 ISBN 0-06-016590-1, page 112.] The technique was also known much earlier inSyria andEgypt , [For references on ancient uses, see Michel Wuttmann, [http://www.achemenet.com/pdf/jasr/jasr2000.1.pdf "The Qanats of 'Ayn-Manâwîr, Kharga Oasis, Egypt"] , in "Jasr" 2001, p. 1. and [http://www.carlo-bergmann.de/Discoveries/discovery.htm Discoveries in the Western Desert of Egypt] ] although whether the monks of Artois learned of it from outside sources or discovered it independently is unknown.Examples of artesian wells
Australia
* The Great Artesian Basin is the largest and deepest artesian basin in the world, occupying 23% of the continent.
United States
Some towns in the United States were named
Artesia after the artesian wells in the vicinity. Other artesian well sites include:
*Pahrump, Nevada
*Fountain Point ,Michigan
* Olympia,Washington
* Memphis,Tennessee
*Smoke Hole Caverns ,Seneca Rocks ,West Virginia
*Evamor ,Goodbee ,Louisiana
*Black Belt (region of Alabama)
*Potomac, Illinois Canada
*
Oak Hills-Stirling,Ontario See also
*
Drinking water
*Fluid mechanics
*Great Artesian Basin
*Hydrogeology
*Qanat Notes
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