The water table as affected by atmospheric pressure

Abstract

In the common situation where air is entrapped in the water, the water table height will vary with atmospheric pressure. The magnitude of this effect must be known before water-table changes can be related with any precision to other factors such as evapotranspiration, infiltration, and drainage. A theory of this effect is developed and the influences of hysteresis and solubility are discussed. It is shown that the maximum rate of change of water-table height with air pressure occurs when the water table is at the surface of the soil. The experiments clearly show the influence of hysteresis, and the results agree excellently with the theoretical predictions.