oberflächennah

07:44 Sep 26, 2008 

Isn't geology always fun? I even persuaded my wife to enjoy it :-)

07:37 Sep 26, 2008 

Sounds all fine to me, now it's up to you to decide. I am really not trying to talk you into something, but since "shallow" is not a very exotic term I think it would also be appropriate for a general audience. Anyways, 'twas fun brushing up my geology :)

07:33 Sep 26, 2008 

In some places the water only penetrates just below the surface
..., allowing it to discharge into streams as near-surface groundwater.

07:31 Sep 26, 2008 

In some places the water only penetrates to a very shallow depth ..., allowing it to discharge into streams as near-surface groundwater.

07:23 Sep 26, 2008 

That one sounds good to me. (I can't persuade you to use shallow now, can I?) ;-)

07:22 Sep 26, 2008 

Regarding "Can it return to streams it has never been in before?": technically speaking, it has been in one river/stream or another during the geological past. after all it had 4.6 billion years go around the place ;)
-->wiki: water cycle

07:19 Sep 26, 2008 

"...allowing it to discharge into streams as near-surface groundwater"?

07:18 Sep 26, 2008 

that's very helpful!

07:17 Sep 26, 2008 

IMO your suggestion in the note to Andrea was better: I'd prefer "flow into" over "ends up ... in" (join is okay I guess). The my "scientific choice" (which doesn't apply, I assume) would be "groundwater discharges into"...

07:04 Sep 26, 2008 

"... so that this near-surface groundwater soon ends up above the surface again in streams" or "allowing it to end up above the surface again soon and join streams"?
Or is that even less clear than the previous version (note to Andrea Winzer)?

06:58 Sep 26, 2008 

I assume that the author simply wanted to say that the groundwater resurfaces and joins the streams sooner that it would if it penetrated deeper into the ground, thus reducing the amount of groundwater and increasing the amount of surface water and thus (potentially) erosion. Does that make sense?

06:52 Sep 26, 2008 

but I have no idea when exactly the water makes the transition from shallow depth into the streams...I hope this sheds a bit of light...

06:41 Sep 26, 2008 

"den Bächen oberflächennah wieder zufließt" means that the water will eventually end up above the surface i.e. in the streams (since it's "den Bächen[...]zufließt"). "oberflächennah" is the way it is travelling i.e. at shallow depth/just below the surface

06:31 Sep 26, 2008 

Well, I've basically paraphrased rather than quoted, but the actual context is available online, as mentioned above. The thing that puzzles me is, does the fact that it "den Bächen oberflächennah wieder zufließt" mean that the groundwater flows into streams (above the surface) just below the surface, or does it mean streams of water that are just below the surface (i.e. shallow groundwater)?

16:26 Sep 25, 2008 

Unless I'm missing something, your context as stated sounds pretty close to a tautology (if the water doesn't penetrate far into the soil, it can flow into the streams as near-surface water) -- but maybe it's OK in the further context.