Adventure #4:
Infiltration
Hello, my name is Gary the Geologist! I will be guiding you through Adventure #4!
On this adventure, we will learn about water hazards and flooding. Natural disasters involving water are very common, but how do they actually happen? We will focus on how these water hazards are influenced by dirt- my favorite thing!
What is Infiltration?
Watch the video on left to see what infiltration is and how it works in different areas.
Infiltration Rate
All soils have a different infiltration rate that varies according to location and surroundings.
Think about these questions and write your thoughts in your Field Journal:
What can change the infiltration rate?
What makes soils different?
How many different soils do you think there are?
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What does this have to do with floods?
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With lots of infiltration in a given area, the risk of a flood goes way down. This is because water can make it down into an aquifer as mentioned in the water storage section.
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When there is little infiltration the risk of a flood goes up by a lot. When the water can't make it down to the aquifer, water pools can end up creating floods.
Activity:
Finding your own infiltration rate.
Now to test infiltration.
This is when you can perform a little experiment with the help of a responsible adult. To the left is a video explaining how to measure infiltration. After watching this video go ahead and grab your own jar of dirt with some water and test it out.
Awesome work! Click on the button below to learn about runoff, the opposite of infiltration.