Table of Contents
How long does it take ground water to reach the aquifer?
The rainfall that seeps into the ground on your property moves through the soil at a rate of only 10 feet per year. Since aquifers (where your well gets its water supply) are hundreds of feet below ground, it might take more than a decade for that rain to reach an aquifer or water-bearing strata!
Can you run a well dry?
When your well starts to run dry, you might notice reduced water pressure, sputtering faucets, and/or sediment in the water. The pump might run, but fail to draw water. It’s rare for a well to run dry permanently. Doing so could damage the well and contaminate your water supply.
How long does water stay in the ocean?
A drop of water may spend over 3,000 years in the ocean before evaporating into the air, while a drop of water spends an average of just nine days in the atmosphere before falling back to Earth. Water spends thousands to hundreds of thousands of years in the large ice sheets that cover Antarctica and Greenland.
How long does water stay in a lake?
Storage in the water cycle
| Reservoir | Estimated residence time |
|---|---|
| Rivers | weeks–months |
| Groundwater | months–10,000 years |
| Glaciers | 40–400 years |
| Lake | 100 years |
How long does it take for a cave to get big?
Eventually, some of the passages become large enough to earn the distinction of “cave”. Most of these solutional caves require more than 100,000 years to widen large enough to hold a human. The water courses down through the Earth until it reaches the zone where the rocks are completely saturated with water.
How long does it take for a solutional cave to widen?
Most of these solutional caves require more than 100,000 years to widen large enough to hold a human. The water courses down through the Earth until it reaches the zone where the rocks are completely saturated with water. Here, masses of water continually slosh to and fro, explaining why many caverns lay nearly horizontal.
How long does it take for a glacier cave to form?
Because they are made of ice, glacier caves can be quite unstable and present unique challenges to spelunkers. These large underground chambers can take hundreds of thousands of years to form.
What causes a cave to become a cave?
The passages widen as more water seeps down, allowing even more water to flow through them. Eventually, some of the passages become large enough to earn the distinction of “cave”.