11.16: Springs

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Groundwater meets the surface in a stream, as shown above, or a spring (figure 1). A spring may be constant, or may only flow at certain times of year.

Figure 1.png
Figure 1. (a) Big Spring in Missouri lets out 12,000 liters of water per second. (b) Other springs are just tiny outlets like this one.

Towns in many locations depend on water from springs. Springs can be an extremely important source of water in locations where surface water is scarce (figure 2).

Figure 2.png
Figure 2. In the dry Arizona desert, Oak Creek and many other streams are spring fed.

Contributors and Attributions

Original content from Kimberly Schulte (Columbia Basin College) and supplemented by Lumen Learning. The content on this page is copyrighted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.