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Porosity that is not considered "effective porosity" includes water bound to clay particles (known as bound water) and isolated "vuggy" porosity (vugs not connected to other pores, or dead-end pores). The effective porosity is of great importance in considering the suitability of rocks or sediments as oil or gas reservoirs, or as aquifers.
Connected porosity is more easily measured through the volume of gas or liquid that can flow into the rock, whereas fluids cannot access unconnected pores. Porosity is the ratio of pore volume to its total volume. Porosity is controlled by: rock type, pore distribution, cementation, diagenetic history and composition. Porosity is not controlled ...
The permeability of a medium is related to the porosity, but also to the shapes of the pores in the medium and their level of connectedness. [2] Fluid flows can also be influenced in different lithological settings by brittle deformation of rocks in fault zones; the mechanisms by which this occurs are the subject of fault zone hydrogeology. [3]
The amount of porosity in a soil depends on the minerals that make up the soil and on the amount of sorting occurring within the soil structure. For example, a sandy soil will have a larger porosity than a silty sand, because the silt will fill the gaps in between the sand particles.
Specific yield, also known as the drainable porosity, is a ratio, less than or equal to the effective porosity, indicating the volumetric fraction of the bulk aquifer volume that a given aquifer will yield when all the water is allowed to drain out of it under the forces of gravity: = where
Soil aeration maintains oxygen levels in the plants' root zone, needed for microbial and root respiration, and important to plant growth.Additionally, oxygen levels regulate soil temperatures and play a role in some chemical processes that support the oxidation of elements like Mn 2+ and Fe 2+ that can be toxic.
However, there is also a concept of closed porosity and effective porosity, i.e. the pore space accessible to flow. Many natural substances such as rocks and soil (e.g. aquifers, petroleum reservoirs), zeolites, biological tissues (e.g. bones, wood, cork), and man made materials such as cements and ceramics can be considered as porous media ...
In 1907, Edgar Buckingham created the first water retention curve. [2] It was measured and made for six soils varying in texture from sand to clay. The data came from experiments made on soil columns 48 inch tall, where a constant water level maintained about 2 inches above the bottom through periodic addition of water from a side tube.