Water School

Groundwater is water found beneath the Earth’s surface that gradually seeped down by saturating soil or rock. This water is stored in underground crevices and in the pores of rocks and other materials beneath the surface.

A spring is a place where groundwater flows naturally from the Earth’s surface. There are two types: gravity springs and non-gravity springs. Gravity springs can be depression spring, surface springs, or artesian springs.  Depression springs: form when a water table intersects with the ground surface, and the water overflows. A water table is an underground boundary of soil saturation. These types of springs vary depending on the raising and lowering of the water table. ...

There are 14 sub-watersheds within the basin, including the Caprock, Salt and Double Mountain Forks, Clear Fork,  and the Upper, Central and Lower watersheds. The Bosque, Leon, Lampasas, Navasota and Little rivers as well as Aquilla, Yegua and Upper Oyster creeks also have sub-watersheds in the basin.

Major aquifers that lie within the basin or that are crossed by it include the Edwards BFZ, Seymour, Edwards-Trinity Plateau, Trinity, Ogallala, Carrizo-Wilcox and Gulf Coast.  For a full sized map, click here.

An aquifer is an underground geological formation that stores and transmits water in amounts that can be extracted by a water well in useful quantities. For a full size map, click here.