What term describes subterranean, porous, water-holding rocks that provide wells with steady flow of water?

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Groundwater storage and movement occur in underground rock formations that are porous and can hold and transmit water. The term for these underground, water-bearing rocks is an aquifer. An aquifer stores water in its pore spaces and fractures and allows it to move, so wells tapping into it can produce a steady flow, depending on recharge and pressure—especially in confined aquifers where impermeable layers trap water and create pressure. Basins are surface depressions that collect water, rivers are surface channels of flowing water, and clathrates are methane hydrates in sediments.