Why do springs never stop flowing all year round?

If you have lived in the mountains in the south, you will find that some springs in the mountains are really like endless water, which will not stop all year round, and the temperature is constant. Originated from these springs.

However, the area of ​​the mountain range is often not very large. Why is there an endless stream of water in the spring on the mountain?

Often foggy weather in mountains

My hometown is the famous fog town in China, and the fog is very thick all the year round. What impressed me most is that when I was in elementary school, when I walked from home to school in the morning—about 1 kilometer away, my entire hair would be hit by the fog. Wet, water-drenched kind.

There is a very interesting myth and legend about my hometown fog. The content of the story is probably as follows:

Wang Mang replaced the Western Han Dynasty to establish a new regime. He initiated a series of reforms, but the people did not live better, so Liu Xiu, an orthodox descendant of the Han royal family, began to rebel against Wang Mang.

Liu Xiu was also attacked as a traitor. When he was defeated, he fled to my hometown and was chased to the top of the mountain.

Just at the end of the road, when Liu Xiu was thinking of giving up, a very thick fog suddenly appeared in the valley. The fog was so thick that people could not see anything, like a vast ocean.

And Liu Xiu is also a very smart person. He took off his shoes and put them on the top of the mountain, and then walked barefoot into the misty valley.

When the pursuers arrived, they saw the shoes left by Liu Xiu and the ocean in front of them. They thought that Liu Xiu had jumped into the sea in fear of crime, so they gave up the pursuit.

Liu Xiu escaped the catastrophe, and later rebuilt the Han Dynasty, known as the Eastern Han Dynasty. The Han Dynasty lasted 200 years because of the fog in my hometown, and the fog in my hometown has been heavy since then.

In the past, the old and young women and children in our area basically knew this story, but most of them couldn't tell which dynasty and which emperor it was. Later, I gradually learned that it was Liu Xiu.

Well, the story is not necessarily true, but the fog in our hometown is very real. I used to think that it was only on our side, but later I learned that most of the mountains are similar.

It may not always rain on the mountains, but the fog in the mountains will be very large. These fogs are actually formed by the condensation of water vapor in the air.

Why are the mountains foggy?

The reason why water vapor condenses in the mountains is that the temperature difference has changed. The temperature on the mountain is lower than that of the mountain. During the process of rising water, it condenses out in the mountain due to oversaturation and turns into fog.

Then the fog will sink, which is why it is always foggy in the valley, and the sinking fog, if not evaporated, is actually absorbed by the soil and vegetation.

This process is equivalent to collecting moisture from other places in the mountains, and this process does not stop for a moment, especially in the morning and evening.

In the morning, other areas have been heated and lost moisture, and the mountains heat up more slowly because of the dense vegetation, and the moisture can easily condense in the mountains and form fog.

The same is true in the evening. As the solar radiation decreases, the water droplets that condense in the mountains due to changes in temperature become less likely to be evaporated, so fog is also prone to occur.

In addition, the weather in the mountains is also changeable. When you are in the sun, it may start to rain halfway up the mountain.

In fact, the mountains do get more rainfall than the flat land. In addition to the temperature difference, the high mountains also block the flow of air, and the air rises along the slopes of the mountains, eventually forming rainfall over the mountains.

Therefore, one of the reasons for the endless flow of water in the springs in the mountains is that each mountain can indeed collect water well.

However, if the mountain can only collect water, of course it is not enough, it must have enough water storage capacity, and every mountain does have this ability.

The mountain has a strong water storage capacity

We often hear that many kinds of trees can prevent soil erosion, and when it comes to water retention, vegetation can really block water loss very well.

The vegetation itself can block the sunlight and reduce the evaporation of water from direct sunlight on the ground, and the fallen leaves will wrap the water like a waterproof bag.

The water that is not evaporated will gradually sink under the action of gravity, and the speed of this sinking depends on the composition of the mountain and the water storage of the aquifer.

In the case of mountains, the location of groundwater is not necessarily under the ground at the foot of the mountain, it can be stored in any crevice.

When all water storage spaces are filled with water, and the aquifer is saturated, the sinking of water is slow, and a lot of the collected water is lost at the surface.

But when the aquifer is unsaturated, the water will sink faster, but this time also depends on the material, some materials - such as sand, it will sink quickly, and clay and shale will very slow.

In fact, no matter how the water moves inside the mountain, it is actually equivalent to being stored inside the mountain.

Therefore, the mountain is really like a natural water tower, and the spring is like an outlet of the water tower. Since the mountains can keep replenishing water, the springs can always keep water.

at last

From the relationship between mountains and water, we can see that this is a cyclic process. If there is a period of extreme drought, the ability of the mountains to collect water exceeds the ability of the springs to lose water, then the springs will dry up. .