ABSTRACT
Excess water related to presence of a permanent water table. Many recent alluvia of small streams or the large rivers such as the Volga or the Amazon exhibit this condition. Excess meteoric water results when there is rainfall in excess compared to the water needed for evapotranspiration, at least if the area is flat and the substratum rather impermeable (crystalline rock or frozen horizon at depth). This happens, for example, in Alaska. But in very cold regions (Greenland, Antarctica), water most often exists as ice and the soil, if there is one, can be dry, in a way... Excess water of anthropic origin. In many countries of the world, rice is cultivated over large areas on artificially flooded and thus modified soils.
