PARADISE COVE
ARTESIAN WELL
This earthcache will take you to The
Paradise Cove Artesian Well in the Village of Winslow, Illinois.
When the village dug a new well in 1927, an atesian source of water
was discovered and has been providing the village with thousands of
gallons of pure water ever day ever since.
The sign at the site welcomes you to take
all the water you want. What is coming out of these pipes is pure,
filtered water, and is the excess from the Municipal Water Supply
building, and flows into Indian Creek and thence to the Pecatonica
River. The water from the well head is tested twice a month by a
state lab.
An Artesian Well is a deep drilled well
through which water is forced upward under pressure. The water in
an artesian well flows from an aquifer, which is a layer of very
porous rock or sediment, usually sandstone, capable of holding and
transmitting large quantities of water. The geologic conditions
necessary for an artesian well are an inclined aquifer sandwiched
between impervious rock layers above and below that trap water in
it. Water enters the exposed edge of the aquifer at a high
elevation and percolates downward through interconnected pore
spaces. The water held in these spaces is under pressure because of
the weight of water in the portion of the aquifer above it. If a
well is drilled from the land surface through the overlying
impervious layer into the aquifer, this pressure will cause the
water to rise in the well. In areas where the slope of the aquifer
is great enough, pressure will drive the water above ground level
in a spectacular, permanent fountain.
In order to log this
cache you must:
1. Post a photo of your face at the well,
holding your GPSr.
2. Email the owner with this information: Signage at the site
specifies that there is no additives in the water, no bacteria, and
no what else? Also, send your estimate of the flow of the well at
the spigot, in gallons per minute.
