What Are Exploratory Wells And How Can They Help Find The Best Location To Drill Your New Water Well?

Posted on: 2 September 2022

A well needs to produce enough water to meet your family's needs in order to be useful, and the most important part of making sure a well is productive is picking the correct site for it. Drilling a well in the wrong location will result in it not breaking into the local aquifer, which means its water production will be very low. One of the best ways to find the best site for your well is to have a water well drilling service come to your property and drill some exploratory wells. To learn more about exploratory wells and why they're useful, read on.

What Is An Exploratory Well?

Exploratory wells are drilled into the earth using a drill with a much smaller diameter than used to dig a water-bearing well. These wells aren't meant to produce water, and any water that does come into the well isn't taken into account. When well drilling services dig an exploratory well, they're looking at what comes back up from the earth as it's drilled. By examining the soil and rock that the drill returns, they're able to get a good idea of the geological composition of your property.

What Information Can an Exploratory Well Provide?

The most important information provided by an exploratory well is the depth of the bedrock layer at the site. By digging multiple exploratory wells on your property, a well drilling service can map out the position of the bedrock underneath the soil. In some areas, the bedrock depth can be very shallow.

Bedrock is capable of producing water for your well since the shifting of tectonic plates in the earth will open up cracks in the bedrock that water from the local aquifer can flow through. Unfortunately, the flow rate tends to be very slow, and bedrock is difficult and time-consuming to drill through. Mapping the bedrock on your property allows the well drilling service to avoid any areas of shallow bedrock when they're picking a site for your water-bearing well since that would likely result in a well with a low flow rate that's difficult to drill.

Another piece of useful information provided by exploratory wells is the soil composition. Sandy soil is difficult to drill through since it will slide off the drill and fall back into the borehole. Clay soil can become saturated after rain to the point where it hardens and blocks off the flow of water into your well. Loamy soil is the ideal site for your well since it avoids both of these problems.

Overall, exploratory wells provide valuable information about the geological composition of your property. When you're relying on a well to provide you with a steady flow of water, it's important to make sure the well is drilled in the right site. Assessing the depth of the bedrock and the soil composition helps water well drilling services find the perfect site for your well, which will be one that's easy to drill through and will produce enough water to meet your needs. 

For more information about water well drilling, contact a local company. 

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