Definition Of Specific Storage

Hydraulic Properties of Earth Materials and Groundwater, Definition of specific storage specific storage: In a saturated porous medium that is confined between two transmissive layers of rock or clay, water will be stored in the pores of the medium by a combination of two phenomena; there are water compression and aquifer expansion. As water is forced into the system at a rate greater than it is being extracted, the water will compress and the matrix will expand to accommodate the excess. In a unit volume of the saturated porous matrix, the volume of water that will be taken into storage under a unit increase in head, or the volume that will be released under a unit decrease in head, is called specific storage . This unit has the dimension of 1/L and is quite small, usually 0.0001 or less.