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GLOSSARY
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A
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| Alluvial deposits | The general name for all sediments, including clay, silt, sans, gravel or similar unconsolidated material deposited in a sorted or semi-sorted condition by a stream or other body of running water, in a stream bed, floodplain, delta or at the base of a mountain slope as a fan |
| Ambient groundwater flow | The rate of flow and direction of flow of groundwater under natural conditions not affected by human activities |
| Anion | A negative electrically charged ion such as a nitrate or chloride ion |
| Aquiclude | A bed, formation or group of formations essentially impervious to water |
| Aquifer | Any strata or a group of interconnected strata comprising of saturated earth material capable of conducting groundwater and of yielding usable quantities of groundwater to borehole(s) and / or springs ( a supply rate of 0.1 L/s is considered as a usable quantity) |
| Aquitard | A body of poorly permeable rock that is capable of slowly absorbing water from, and releasing water to, an aquifer, It does not transmit groundwater rapidly enough to directly supply a borehole or spring |
| Artesian aquifer | See confined aquifer |
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B
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| Bedrock | Rock underlying soil and other unconsolidated material |
| Borehole | Drilled hole used to abstract, recharge or monitor groundwater |
| Breccia | Fragments of rock, generally angular in a fine grained matrix, or a matrix of cementing material. Breccias include tectonic breccias, clastic breccias and volcanic breccias |
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C
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| Catchment | An area of land from which any rainfall will drain into the water course or watercourses and flow to a common point, has definable physical boundaries. |
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D
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| Dissolved solids | Minerals and organic matter dissolved in water. |
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G
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| Groundwater | Water in the zone of saturation, that is under a pressure equal to or greater than atmospheric pressure |
| Groundwater mining | Unsustainable depletion of groundwater reserves |
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S
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| Saturation zone | Hydrologic zone in which all the interstices between particles of geologic material or all of the joints, fractures, or solution channels in a consolidated rock unit are filled with water under pressure greater than that of the atmosphere |
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U
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| Unsaturated zone | See vadose zone. |
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W
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| Well | See borehole. |
| Wellfield | A group of boreholes in a particular area used for groundwater abstraction purposes. |
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Y
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| Yield | Volume of water per unit of time that can be obtained from a borehole |
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| News |
2003-03-31
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