The Mississippi embayment — Where Does the Water Come From?

As the animation begins, the land surface of the Mississippi embayment fades away to reveal underground geologic formations (shown as shades of blue, brown, and gray surfaces). A slice deep into the earth cuts off the eastern half of the embayment so we can peer into the formations (aquifers) beneath the surface. The lower portion of different colored water wells (orange, light blue, and dark blue lines) come into view as the formations rotate. Each color of the wells represents a different layer of sand (aquifer) from which water is pumped. The wells are drilled from tens of feet deep to over 1,000 feet below land surface. There are thousands of wells represented here, but there are many thousands more that are not shown. All together, these wells pump, on average, enough water out of the ground to cover an average size county in about six inches of water -- everyday. This animation is another piece of the 3D computer model puzzle used to help manage the valuable water resource.