Water is continually moving through the environment – we call this the water cycle. This video talks about an important aspect of the water cycle – groundwater.

Key ideas:

Groundwater forms an important component of the water cycle:

Rainfall infiltrates into the ground to replenish groundwater
Rocks that store groundwater are called aquifers
Groundwater is contained in rocks in the spaces between grains and in cracks
The level of groundwater in an aquifer is called the water table
We monitor groundwater levels using observation boreholes
Groundwater levels vary with time and spatially
Groundwater flows from areas where the water level is high to areas where the water level is low
Flow in many of our rivers is supported by groundwater inflow from aquifers.