Lady Fisher's Ground Water Question

LF raised a very interesting question, this week in her story on our water and its resources.
Below, is a request she made and I thought I’d do a little “snooping” around the net…
Lady Fisher’s quote:
“Seriously, there are ways to determine the age of the water we draw from underground. I don’t recall the method, and if you do, please put a post on our bulletin board as it would be a nifty thing for us all to know and understand.” (end quote).

So, if you find this topic interesting,(as I did, anyway) and how the water you fish in, bathe with and drink…can be anywhere from “one day” to “ten thousand years old”, by the time WE see it above ground, here’s an interesting link which answers most of those questions!

http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Ge-Hy/Groundwater-Age-of.html

Hey, good job. Hope this subject keeps going. :slight_smile:

We were taught in school that the water you see, in it’s various forms, has been on the planet since the first day water was here. So you are drinking the same water that the dinosaurs drank. That ought to get a few of the prudes turning their noses up.

Thanks, JC and yes, I did find it pretty interesting, maybe others will to!?!

Eric…
Like I didn’t have ENOUGH to worry about, health wise, …you’re NOW saying I have to watch out for “Tyrannosaur Rex Fever”, when I take a drink, as well? Who’d a-thunk it?

May I recommend one of these:

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/item-link.jsp_A&_DAV=MainCatcat20075-cat20132&id=0013055515228a&navCount=1&podId=0013055&parentId=cat20132&masterpathid=&navAction=push&catalogCode=IH&rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat20132&hasJS=true

Tough to find one that filters out dinosaur pee but then I think all of that turned into crude oil.:smiley:

You were taught wrong. Water gets broken down and recombined. The oxygen that plants emit actually comes from water being broken down. The hydrogen atoms from that water get used to make carbohydates during photosynthesis. The single oxygen atom from 1 water molecule combines with the oxygen from another to form molecular oxygen (O2). When the carbodhydrates get burned, the carbon and hydrogen molecules combine with available oxygen to form carbon dioxide (or carbon monoxide, if availble oxygen is in short supply) and water.

So whenever you take a breath, the oxygen that you are taking in may have once been attached to hydrogen molecules to make water that was dino pee. On the other hand, it might have also been a molecule of water that was in a drop of sweat from Jesus’ brow. Be very careful just what you turn your nose up at…

QUOTE;
Water > On earth

There is a lot of water on our planet. About 1 360 000 000 km3! This water is spread over different kinds of places:
Percent Total amount of water in km3
Seas and Oceans 97.2% 1 321 920 000
Ice-caps and glaciers 2.15% 2 857 780
Deep groundwater 0.31% 4 216 000
Shallow groundwater 0.31% 4 216 000
Inclination and capillary water 0.005% 68 000
Rivers 0.0001% 1 360
Salt or brackish lakes 0.008% 108 800
Fresh water lakes 0.009% 122 400
Water-vapour in the air 0.0009% 12 240
Source; Thinkquest.com
Doug