An additional difficulty arises in the case of observations made with long mercury thermometers buried in vertical holes, that the correction for the expansion of the liquid in the long stems is uncertain, and that the holes may serve as channels for percolation, and thus lead to exceptionally high values.
But in order that the action may be complete the initial resistance to percolation of water at every part of the soil must be such that the motion of the water through it shall be insufficient to disturb the water-borne mineral and organic particles lodged on the surface or in the interstices of the soil.
Dams Any well-made earthen embankment of moderate height, and of such thickness and uniformity of construction as to ensure freedom from excessive percolation at any point, will in the course of time become almost impermeable to surface water standing against it; and when permeable rocks are covered with many feet of soil, the leakage through such soil from standing water newly placed above it generally diminishes rapidly, and in process of time often ceases entirely.
Either by rapid growth of vegetation, or by subsequent percolation of organic solutions, most of the alkalis and the lime have been carried away.
For this reason observations at different depths in the same locality often give very concordant results for the same period, as the total percolation and the average rate are necessarily nearly the same for the various strata, although the actual degree of wetness of each may vary considerably.
In any case, it is evident that the transmission of heat by percolation would be much greater in porous soils and in the upper layers of the earth's crust than in the lower strata or in solid rocks.
In potting the well-established plants, and all those of considerable size, the soil should be used in a rough turfy state, not sifted but broken, and one-sixth of broken crocks or charcoal and as much sand as will insure free percolation should be mixed with it.
It had to be considered whether this percolation could best be checked by laying a solid wall across the river, going down to 50 or 60 ft.
It is probable that the coarser soils, permitting more rapid percolation, would generally give higher results.
It is therefore natural that attempts should have been made to construct filters which, while permitting the slow percolation of water, should preclude the passage of bacteria or their spores.
It looks like the beginning of success of an effort made by a slight percolation during the whole life of the reservoir to increase itself materially by erosion.
Nevertheless the secular shrinking goes on, the loss by evaporation and percolation exceeding the amount of water received; whilst, on the average, the rainfall is diminishing.
Of course, with such a pressure as this, there was likely to be percolation under the foundations and a washing-out of the soil.
On a small scale, however, springs are fairly distributed over the United Kingdom, for there are no formations, except perhaps blown sand, which do not vary greatly in their resistance to the percolation of water, and therefore tend to produce overflow from underground at some points above the valley levels.
On the restoration of the pressure, the density will be again increased by the reduction of the water-filled interstices, and the percolation will be correspondingly checked.
Percolation toe and concrete t through this sand is thus added to the original leakage.
Perhaps the most instructive cases of nearly uniform percolation in nature are those which occur in some islands or peninsulas formed wholly of sea sand.
Permeability is practically identical with the speed at which percolation takes place; through clay it is slow, but increases in rapidity through marls, loams, limestones, chalks, coarse gravels and fine sands, reaching a maximum in soil saturated with moisture.
Precisely the same thing happens in the actual crust of the earth, except that, in the formations usually met with, the strata are so irregularly permeable that no such uniform percolation occurs, and most of the water, instead of oozing out near the sea-level, meets with obstructions which cause it to issue, sometimes below the sea-level and sometimes above it, in the form of concentrated springs.
Rambaut's results were obtained with similar instruments similarly located, but he did not investigate the seasonal variations of diffusivity, or the effect of percolation.
The conductor, which was a wooden casing of somewhat greater internal diameter than the maximum bore of the well, passed through the first of these divisions, and casing was used in the second to prevent percolation of water into the oil-bearing portion.
The earlier treasury was probably destroyed either by earthquake or by the percolation of water through the terracing.
The figure, in this case of uniform percolation, assumed by the water in the neighbourhood of a deep well is a surface of revolution, and, however irregular the percolation and the consequent shape of the figure, it is commonly, but somewhat incorrectly, called the " cone of depression.
The genesis of the last three types of deposit is generally assigned to the simultaneous percolation of solutions of gold and silica, the auriferous solution being formed during the disintegration of the gold-bearing metalliferous veins.
The great boundary rivers flow through low-lying valleys fertilized by their overflow or percolation, while a high bank leads up to the central upland, which, though naturally dry and unproductive except where irrigated by wells, has been transformed by various canal systems. This favoured region may be regarded as the granary of upper India.
The greater part of the diffusion of heat was certainly due to the percolation of water.
The low value at Montreal is chiefly due to the absence of percolation during the winter.
The original material may have been perfectly satisfactory, but if, for example, in puddle the progress of the work a stream of water is allowed to flow across it, fine clay is sometimes washed away, and the gravel or sand associated with it left to a sufficient extent to permit of future percolation.
The percolation will then be very small, and the risk of disintegration will be reduced to a minimum.
The resistance of clay to percolation by water depends chiefly upon the density of the clay, while that density is rapidly reduced if the clay is permitted to absorb water.
The resistance to its passage through the sand is, however, sufficiently great to prevent this from occurring while percolation of annual rainfall takes place.
The seed is prepared in a similar manner as for pressing, except that it is not reduced to a fine meal, so as not to impede the percolation of the solvent through the mass.
There is considerable distortion of the clay, resulting from combined shearing and tensile stress, above each of the steps of rock, and reaching its maximum at and above the highest rise ab, where it has proved sufficient to produce a dangerous line of weakness ac, the tension at a either causing actual rupture, or such increased porosity as to permit of percolation capable of keeping open the wound.
Thus, if dry clay is prevented from expanding, and one side be sub j ected to water pressure while the other side is held up by a completely porous medium, the percolation will be exceedingly small; but if the pressure preventing the expansion is reduced the clay will swell, and the percolation will increase.
Thus, if there is any percolation between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, it must be towards the latter.
Unless such places are carefully dug out or re-puddled before the work of filling is resumed, the percolation may increase along the vertical plane where it is greatest, by the erosion and falling in of the clay roof, as in the other cases cited.
Upon such areas the Springs loss by percolation into the ground, not retrieved in and the form of springs above the point of interception may be neglected, and the only loss to the stream is that already considered of re-evaporation into the air and of absorption by vegetation.
Where the strata are not uniformly porous, they may resist the passage of water from the direction of the sea or they may assist it; and round the whole coast of England, in the Magnesian limestone to the northeast, in the Chalk and Greensand to the east and south, and in the New Red Sandstone to the west, the number of wells which have been abandoned as sources of potable supply, owing to the percolation of sea water, is very great.