A seep or flush is a moist or wet place where

water Water (chemical formula ) is an Inorganic compound, inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living ...

, usually

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated ...

, reaches the earth's surface from an underground

aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing, permeable rock, rock fractures, or unconsolidated materials ( gravel, sand, or silt). Groundwater from aquifers can be extracted using a water well. Aquifers vary greatly in their characteris ...

Description

Seeps are usually not of sufficient volume to be flowing beyond their immediate above-ground location. They are part of the

limnology Limnology ( ; from Greek λίμνη, ''limne'', "lake" and λόγος, ''logos'', "knowledge") is the study of inland aquatic ecosystems. The study of limnology includes aspects of the biological, chemical, physical, and geological characteris ...

- geomorphology system. Like a higher volume spring, the water is only from underground sources. Seeps mostly occur in lower elevation areas because water runs downhill, but can happen higher up if the groundwater present is abundant enough. Along with natural seeps, man made seeps can occur by digging anywhere where there is wet ground. This method can be useful for survival purposes and helps the local wildlife by adding another water source to the area. Seeps often form a

puddle A puddle is a small accumulation of liquid, usually water, on a surface. It can form either by pooling in a depression on the surface, or by surface tension upon a flat surface. A puddle is generally shallow enough to walk through, and too sma ...

, and are important for small

wildlife Wildlife refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous to game: those birds and mammals that were hunted ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

, and

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprise ...

habitat and moisture needs. When they support

mud-puddling Mud-puddling, or simply puddling, is a behaviour most conspicuous in butterflies, but occurs in other animals as well, mainly insects; they seek out nutrients in certain moist substances such as rotting plant matter, mud and carrion and they suck ...

many butterfly ('' Lepidoptera'') species can obtain nutrients such as

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

s and

amino acid Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although hundreds of amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the alpha-amino acids, which comprise proteins. Only 22 alpha a ...

s, including some types that are

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

endangered species.

Environmental technology

Seep is often used in environmental sciences to define an exfiltration zone (seepage zone) where contaminated water, e.g., from waste dumps, leaves a waste system area. Seeps are often important smaller wildlife water sources, and indicated by lower

riparian A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the terrestrial biomes of the Earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks a ...

vegetation.

Stream recharge system

Seeps can also contribute to streams. If a stream is flowing below a

water table The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated. T ...

then the stream receives contributions from the ground water via

seepage Soil mechanics is a branch of soil physics and applied mechanics that describes the behavior of soils. It differs from fluid mechanics and solid mechanics in the sense that soils consist of a heterogeneous mixture of fluids (usually air and wat ...

. This allows for a drainage of the ground water along with creating a more substantial stream to flow. The seep could be especially effective during a rain less period of the area in which the seep can actually prolong the stream’s flow by adding water from the groundwater.

Citations

References

*Meinzer, Oscar E., ed. Hydrology. New York: Dover, 1949. Print. {{pond Hydrogeology Springs (hydrology) Aquifers

Description

Environmental technology

Stream recharge system

See also

Citations

References