Describing groundwater below the water-table. The phreatic zone is permanently saturated; see Bekele et al. (2006) Aus. J. Earth Sci. 53, 6 on a phreatic aquifer, and Lajura et al. (2006) Env. Forensics 7, 4 on a coastal phreatic terrain. A volcanic phreatic eruption has meteoric water mixed with the lava, and may create steam, or a geyser (Fontaine et al. (2003) Earth & Planet. Sci. Letters 210, 1–2). A phreatophyte is any desert plant with roots down to the phreatic zone; see Ridolfi et al. (2007) J. Theoret. Biol. 248, 2.