Avances en la investigación en ciencias aplicadas Acceso abierto

Abstracto

Application of electrical resistivity survey to sand mining at Ewu near the coastal area of Delta state, Nigeria

Okolie E. C

In recent time, utilization of sand has increased greatly and commercialized because many road-construction companies now use a lot of sand to enforce their roads to give face-lift. This is common near the coastal areas in Niger Delta region where the roads are often flooded in the rainy season. It is therefore necessary to empirically source for and ascertain sites with appreciable sand deposits for effective mining. Hence, Electrical resistivity soundings were made in five stations in Ewu, Delta State to investigate the occurrence of sand in relation to its economic viability. The field data were measured using a sensitive terrameter and were plotted on bi-log graphs. The sounding curves were analyzed and iterated with computer software. The results obtained were used to generate geoelectric sections from which the available sand deposits were quantified. The sections show that Ewu has six and seven subsurface layers of near homogeneous stratification with AQH, KHH, and KHA - curve types. They also indicate that Ewu has huge loose sand deposits to far depth of over 27 m which can be mined appreciably and commercially. From the study, it is also obvious that viable aquifer at Ewu is within 30 - 45 metres and the static water level is about 26 metres