ABSTRACT
Groundwater moving through the geosphere appears to be a simple enough process, yet a groundwater realm of cryptic underground rivers and channels has remained in our culture since early historic times, sustained by water diviners and rural myths. Surface waters seem easier to understand, their intricacies more apparent because we can see them flow and follow them to their source. But to quench your thirst, they must first be flocculated, sedimented, filtered, limed, chlorinated and often chilled, provided industrial effluents have not already damaged the supply. For groundwaters, the geosphere provides these treatments naturally. Groundwater represents more than 50 times the freshwater resource that surface waters do, yet in North America groundwater is used for less than half of freshwater needs; in Central Europe, groundwater is the dominant source for drinking water.
