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At increasing depths, water fills in more of the pore spaces in the soils, until a zone of saturation is reached. Below the water table, in the phreatic zone (zone of saturation), layers of permeable rock that yield groundwater are called aquifers.
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.
Below the capillary fringe is the saturated zone (a.k.a. phreatic zone), where the pores are completely saturated and the fluid in the pores is at or above atmospheric pressure . The interface between the capillary fringe and the saturated zone marks the location of the water table.
The soil surface above the water table is called the unsaturated zone, where both oxygen and water fill the spaces between sediments. The unsaturated zone is also called the zone of aeration due to the presence of oxygen in the soil.
The water table sits on top of what experts call the zone of saturation, or phreatic zone. The area above the water table is called the vadose zone. Unlike the tables you'd find in your house, a water table usually isn't flat, or horizontal.
Water in the saturated zone below the water table is referred to as ground water. Below the water table, the water pressure is high enough to allow water to enter a well as the water level in the well is lowered by pumping, thus permitting ground water to be withdrawn for use.
The saturated zone, a zone in which all the pores and rock fractures are filled with water, underlies the unsaturated zone. The top of the saturated zone is called the water table (Diagram 1). The water table may be just below or hundreds of feet below the land surface. What is an aquifer?
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 phreatic zone, saturated zone, or zone of saturation, is the part of an aquifer, below the water table, in which relatively all pores and fractures are saturated with water. The part above the water table is the vadose zone (also called unsaturated zone).
The water table is a fundamental concept in hydrogeology, yet it is frequently incorrectly defined. For example, both the NGWA (2003) and AGI (Neuendorf et al. 2005) glossaries define the water table as the atmospheric pressure surface that is coincident with the top of the zone of saturation.