Angiogeology is the branch of hydrogeology that studies water vessels.
The term angiogeology resembles a hard to pronounce barbarism (in which three similar syllables, gio, geo and gy, follow each other).
Angiogeology characterizes the branch of hydrogeology that focuses on saturated underground water flows.
Angiogeology is made up of:
- the radical angio- coming from the Greek angeion that means vessel. This radical is found, for example, in the term angiology which refers to the study of the organs involved in the circulation (veins, arteries, heart, lymphatic vessels...). The vessels referred to in angiogeology are water vessels. They form slender and stable structures through which a flow of confined underground water rises to the surface (generally going through several aquifers and ending up in the water table).
- the name geology, the earth science, also used in the word hydrogeology of which angiogeology is a specialty.
[Almost] all confined water reservoirs have leaks. These leaks are always very localized. They do not diffuse in the lithospheric context of the reservoir but produce one or more water vessels. The so produced water vessels end up feeding other water reservoirs (or aquifers or the water table) or produce a spring when they reach the ground surface.
Water vessels are the main focus of angiogeology.
A 3D view, a surface projection and an elevation profile provide a general idea of the morphology of the water vessels network aring from a geothermal reservoir. This web site is mainly devoted to them. Thanks to water vessels the optimal collecting locations of water bearing sites can be detected (provided one masters the technology enabling their detection). The technology that we used is called angiogeoscopy and is based on quantum geophysics.