Geological strata giving rise to an Artesian well

An artesian aquifer is a confined aquifer whose water is pressurized. Water will thus flow out of an artesian water well without pumping.

Why is a well artesian?

Because the water table at its recharge zone is at a higher elevation than the head of the well.

Pascal's Law predicts the hydrostatic pressure:

where ρ is the density of the fluid, g the acceleration due to gravity, and z is the elevation.

Origin

Artesian wells are named after the town of Artois in France, where the first one was drilled by Carthusian monks in 1126. [1] (see also )

See also

• fluid mechanics
• hydrogeology

Notes

Note 1: Frances and Joseph Gies, Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel subtitled "Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages". Harper Perennial, 1995 ISBN 0060165901, page 112.