Originally all artesian waters are meteoric, that is, are all waters which reach the earth by precipitation as rain.
Features characteristic of artesian water including:
*It is interstratal pressure waters the horizons and complexes of which are isolated both above and below confining beds. Aquifer receives water from the surface incline downward often hundreds of meters below the surface, and must be confined between impermeable layers that prevent escape of the water, except to the artesian spring or wells.
*The recharge region and the creation of the pressure of the artesian water and the region in which it is distributed do not coincide and are often separated from one another by great distances
*In artesian wells, water rises to the surface and flows out under its own pressure, without pumping. Hydrostatic pressure in the confined aquifer is sufficient to raise water in wells to levels higher that the upper surface of the aquifer.
*The artesian water regime is more stable than that of subsurface water. This is because artesian water is confined between beds of low permeability.
*Artesian water is fresh in the upper part of the cross section, but its degree of mineralization increase with depth and it becomes saline water and even brine.
The word ‘artesian’ comes from the province of Artois in northwestern France, where the first artesian well was drilled by Carthusian monks in AD 1126.
The borehole was only a few inches in diameter, but the confined groundwater was under enough pressure that to flowed out of the ground.
What is artesian water?
