Fractured-Rock Aquifer Diagram

Fractured-rock aquifers consist of (1) a mobile domain of connected, permeable pathways, and (2) an immobile domain of low-permeability rock matrix and unconnected or impermeable fractures. Dissolved contaminants are easily transported through the mobile domain; however, negligible transport occurs through the immobile domain. Solutes very slowly move back and forth between the mobile and immobile domains via rate-limited mass transfer.