Duck Farm Trail Earth Cache EarthCache
Hidden : 4/22/2012
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size: not chosen (not chosen)

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Geocache Description:

Confined or Unconfined Well

There is no need to park at or enter the dog park for this cache series. The posted parking coordinates will take you to a free parking spot on Douglas Road. From that spot a grass trail is quite visible. That trail will take you to all of the caches in this series.

I am no hydrologist, but I have passed this spot several times during my hikes and if it is not a natural spring, then it is sure behaving like one.

If you would like to learn more about natural springs and wells click here to visit wikipedia.

Click here to visit the USGS site written by Samuel V Panno that I used as a source for my information.

Groundwater is water present in the small porous spaces between grains of sand and gravel and in open crevices in rock. By gravity’s force groundwater most commonly moves from higher to lower elevations through the connected pores in the rock and sediment underneath the ground until it is released into a stream by way of a spring. Streams that flow when no rain has fallen for several weeks or months are therefore being fed by groundwater through the process explained above.

An aquifer is a body of rock or sediment that will release water through a well or spring. Glacial deposits abundant in clay and shale (low in permeability and therefore do not conduct water well), will act as restraining areas and will limit the movement of groundwater through the material. So, aquifers act as a means of transmitting water through the earth which has been surrounded by earthen materials that do not conduct water as well.

Due to the fact that groundwater moves through tiny pores within the clay, sand and, gravel, it generally moves slowly. However, a well or a spring in a sand and gravel aquifer has the ability to move much more water and can sometimes do so quite rapidly. Sand and gravel aquifers in Illinois produce 58 percent of the ground-water we use; the remaining groundwater is produced from bedrock aquifers.

The geology of the land plays a major role in the how much water is available through the ground. The glaciers that used to cover much of Illinois left behind an abundance of rock and debris that now covers the bedrock to depths of of up to several hundreds of feet. These deposits are often rich in clay, though glaciers also left behind many other deposits made up of sand and gravel. The deposits of sand and gravel now act as aquifers.

What you need to know:
There are two main types of aquifers: the unconfined or water table aquifer and the confined aquifer. Unconfined aquifers are replenished by way of direct infusion of rain water and they are found in Illinois counties with very sandy soils. Confined aquifers are covered by less porous beds of materials that limit the movement of groundwater and therefore cause the water coming out of the ground to be under pressure.

In order to log this earth cache as "found" please complete the following in an email to the cache owner and not in your log:
1. Based upon what you learned above and what you know (or have learned) about the makeup of the soil in northern Illinois, is what you see the result of a confined or unconfined aquifer?
2. Describe the direction in which the water is flowing once it comes out of the spring.
3. Please (though I cannot require it) attach a picture to your log that either shows you and your caching party or your GPSr in front of the spring to prove you were actually here.

Logs submitted as "found" without meeting the above requirements will be deleted.

Additional Hints (No hints available.)



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