What's the Difference Between a spring and an Artesian Well?

People who live in the city do not have to worry about wells. The city supplies them with water. But out in the country and in some suburbs, obtaining a water supply may be quite a problem. Such water may come from a spring is water that flows from a natural opening in the ground.

During each rainfall, part of the water soaks into the soil and rocks through small spaces and cracks and is pulled down by gravity as far the openings in the rocks will allow. At different levels below the surface of the land there is a zone where all the openings in the rocks are completely filed with water. This is called "the underground zone". The upper surface of it is called "the water table". 

In valleys or other low places in the land surface, below the water tables, springs occur where there are cracks in the rocks. In other words, the water that has been stored up there escapes as spring water. Some springs flow all year because they receive water from deep within the ground-water zone.

Other springs flow only in the rainy season, when the water tables is at its highest level. An artesian well is formed when a layer of loose rock, gravel, or sand has spaces to hold the water. So we have three layers–solid rock above and below, and a porous layer that is like a pipe between them. These three layers are not horizontal, they lie at an angle. 

Water enters the middle layer at the top end farther down, if an opening is made, there is pressure that makes the water spurt out and we have an artesian well.