the cause of it I suppose enormous quantities of water pouring through spaces in and between the strata as the water receded
Groundwater doesn't rush like surface water. The pore spaces are tiny, the route is convoluted, and therefore friction is enormously high compared to surface flow. Groundwater moves in inches per hour in sand and fractions of an inch per day in clay.
If the water surface was above the ground level as in a receding flood, all the flow would be along the ground surface and none through the ground.
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