There are many more flowing wells throughout this area. This
particular well originates on private property and discharges into
a ditch within the state right-of-way for M-33. Please be
respectful of the private property on the other side of this ditch
and stay on the shoulder side (road side). The answers required to
log your find can be achieved from this location.
An aquifer is a layer of permeable material in which water can
easily move such as unconsolidated sand, gravel, clay or silt. It
can also be composed of soft rock such as fractured limestone or
sandstone that absorbs water from an inlet path. When this layer of
permeable material is “sandwiched” above and below by impermeable
material/rock, this can place the water in the aquifer under
pressure. When this occurs you now have the necessary conditions to
create an artesian well/spring.
In artesian wells, water rises within the well to a point above the
top of the aquifer. If the water also rises above the ground
surface, the well is called a “flowing well,” or “flowing artesian
well.” All flowing wells are artesian, but not all artesian wells
are flowing wells. These flowing artesian wells have intrigued
mankind for centuries.
Flowing artesian wells are created when the pressure in a confined
aquifer (water- bearing geologic formation mentioned above) forces
ground water above the ground surface so that the well will flow
without a pump. This water is forced up through either man-made
holes or natural fissures (cracks).
The principal water-yielding aquifers of North America can be
grouped into five types: unconsolidated and semi-consolidated sand
and gravel aquifers, sandstone aquifers, carbonate-rock aquifers,
aquifers in interbedded sandstone and carbonate rocks, and aquifers
in igneous and metamorphic rocks.
This well and others in the area are produced from a
Sandstone Aquifer. There are several sandstone
aquifers in Michigan; these include the Marshall, Jacobsville,
Early Mesozoic basin and Pennsylvania aquifers. This particular
well is in the region that is falls within the Marshall Aquifer.
These sandstone aquifers are level or gently dip. Because they are
commonly interbedded with siltstone or shale, most of the water in
these aquifers is under confined conditions.
The carbonate-rock aquifers in Michigan are primarily the
Silurian-Devonian aquifer. These average in thickness about 400 to
600 feet; they also contain some sandstone, shale, and evaporite
beds (rock and mineral deposits left over from evaporation process
when Michigan was covered by sea water). Water movement is
primarily through secondary openings, such as joints, fractures,
and bedding-plane openings, many of which have been enlarged by
dissolution (the dissolving action of these underground rocks).
Under certain conditions this dissolution process is responsible
for the formation of sinkholes and caves known as karst
features.
Statistics/Trivia:
If all of the flowing wells drilled in Michigan in 2001 were
allowed to discharge to the surface without any volume reduction,
about 28 million gallons of ground water would be
released from artesian aquifers each day. From
June 2001 through June 2002, about 450 flowing wells were drilled
in Michigan (about 3 percent of the new water wells drilled). The
average flow rate from the newly drilled wells, before flow control
devices were installed, was 42 gallons per minute (gpm). Forty of
the wells had flow rates of 100 gpm or more. A well drilled in
Ogemaw County in December 2001, produced a geyser of water 12 feet
above the top of the 4-inch casing. The well drilling contractor
reported the flow rate to be 1,000 gpm.
To claim a find, e-mail me with the answers to the following
questions. Since the ditch makes access difficult, we’ll forego the
standard flow-rate question and go with two simpler
questions…
1). What elevation does your GPSr show at
these coordinates?
2). What is the address (number only) of the house this flow
discharges in front of?
8/22/08 - Congratulations to eagle6
on the FTF!