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The water table is the surface where the water pressure head is equal to the atmospheric pressure (where gauge pressure = 0). It may be visualized as the "surface" of the subsurface materials that are saturated with groundwater in a given vicinity.
water table, upper level of an underground surface in which the soil or rocks are permanently saturated with water. The water table separates the groundwater zone that lies below it from the capillary fringe, or zone of aeration, that lies above it.
The most reliable method of obtaining the depth to the water table at any given time is to measure the water level in a shallow well with a tape. If no wells are available, surface geophysical methods can sometimes be used, depending on surface accessibility for placing electric or acoustic probes.
A water table describes the boundary between water-saturated ground and unsaturated ground. Below the water table, rocks and soil are full of water. Pockets of water existing below the water table are called aquifers. An area's water table can fluctuate as water seeps downward from the surface.
The water table is an underground boundary between the soil surface and the area where groundwater saturates spaces between sediments and cracks in rock. Water pressure and atmospheric pressure are equal at this boundary.
The upper surface of this water-filled area, or "zone of saturation", is called the water table. The saturated area beneath the water table is called an aquifer, and aquifers are huge storehouses of water. In our sand hole example, you have essentially dug a "well" that exposes the water table, with an aquifer beneath it.
The contact between the saturated and unsaturated zones is called the water table (Figure 1). Figure 1 The Water Table. There is “room” for air in the unsaturated zone because the water is held to the sides of the soil particles through the force of surface tension.