Good question. Aquifers are buried sources of water. I like to think of aquifers as "rivers beneath the desert," because that's how they function: bodies of water that move like streams and rivers under the ground.
The United States Geological Service (USGS) defines an aquifer as "A zone of material capable of supplying ground water at a useful rate from a well."
There are aquifers in Africa, Asia, Europe and probably every body of land on earth. In the United States about 60 aquifers have been identified as "principal aquifers" by the USGS. They are located in every region of the U.S.
Major aquifers located entirely or partly in Idaho (links are to USGS maps):
Northern Rocky Mountain Intermontane Basins Regional Acquifer System
Snake River Plain basaltic-rock aquifers
Snake River Plain basin-fill aquifers
Here's a great report on USGS studies of 24 aquifers in the U.S. in the 1980s and 1990s. On the opening page are links to--
The Ground Water Atlas of the United States by the USGS
Aquifer basics by type of rock filter, by the USGS
JG
Copyright (c) by Joyce Griffith
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