Blog #3: Water Tables of the Empty Quarter

Water Tables of the Empty Quarter

The Empty Quarter has been known over the years for its richness of water tables. Its perfect location has given it a great amount of “water tables” which is water stored underneath the ground. Crossroad Arabia website has noted that there is about 4 billion cubic meter of water which is about 141 trillion cubic feet (Tapping the Empty Quarter’s Water). Over millions of years the water has been building up in this area until recently, when they discovered that this amount of water could be used throughout the country.
                                            Figure 1:

Figure 1 shows that excess water from rain is stored underground.

The Empty Quarter has two Water tables. First one is in the south west of Saudi Arabia, near Yaman's borders is the only water pump in the Empty Quarter which serves the entire southern part of Saudi Arabia. Najran City governor in the south west side of Saudi Arabia opened this pump in 2004. The pump is connected to 17 wells, that pumps around 50,000 cubic meters of water on a daily basis (Tapping the Empty Quarter’s Water).
                                            Figure 2:

Figure 2 shows how people extract water from water tables using wells.

Second water table is located in the middle of the Empty Quarter and where the climate could get up to 126 F (Bates, Brainerd S.). The existence of oases in this location and this temperature fascinates us. Oases occur because of high level water table that are located in between of two high grounds, which gather the water in one place to create a lake.  

                                          Figure 3:

Figure 3 shows how water tables are connected to rivers and lakes.

                                           Figure 4:

Figure 4 is a picture of an Oasis at the Empty Quarter.

The entire Quarter does not get much of rain each year. In addition, the Empty Quarter is bounded by mountains and heights all around, mountains are located in the south of Saudi Arabia and North of Oman. Najd plateau is up in the north of it and Sarawat mountains from the west. Most of the water comes from these heights and settle in it. As we studied in Physical Geography class, this type of water called gravity water because it moves with gravity and sinks into the ground through unsaturated zone (also called aeration zone, which is a zone above the water table and below surface where air and water reserve in microscopic spaces) until it reaches and reserves in the saturated zone (it is a zone below unsaturated zone where only water reserve in the microscopic spaces). We think that since the entire Arabia peninsula is surrounded by water then its ground is saturated which made the Empty Quarter reserve and store the water.

                          
                                          Figure 5:

Figure 5 shows the difference between saturated and unsaturated zones and how water table is located between unsaturated and saturated zones. Under the saturated zone is called an aquifer, which is like a warehouse of water and the saturated zone is holding the aquifer from reaching to the unsaturated zone (Aquifers).

References 

1- "Aquifers." United States Geological Survey. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2013. <http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthgwaquifer.html>.

2- Bates, Brainerd S. "Camping In The Empty Quarter." Saudi Aramco World. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2013. <http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/196706/camping.in.the.empty.quarter.htm>.

3- "Tapping the Empty Quarter’s Water." Crossroads Arabia. N.p., 02 Apr. 2011. Web. 17 Apr. 2013 <http://xrdarabia.org/2011/04/02/tapping-the-empty-quarters-water/>.


Images
1- Figure 1 and 2: http://myweb.cwpost.liu.edu/vdivener/notes/groundwater.htm
2- Figure 3: http://water.usgs.gov/ogw/karst/kigconference/ns_comparisons.htm
3- Figure 5: http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthgwaquifer.html
4- Figure 4: http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-41129995/stock-photo-an-oasis-in-the-oman-desert.html