Application of the electrical resistivity and ground penetration radar methods in lithostratigraphy characterisation of the Kyereyiase clay deposit site, in the Atwima Nwabiagya South district of the Ashanti region, Ghana
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Date
JUNE, 2019
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Abstract
The electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and the ground penetration radar (GPR)
techniques, were employed to characterize the possible lithostratigraphy units at the
Kyereyiase clay deposit, in the Atwima Nwabiagya South District of the Ashanti Region
of Ghana. The electrical resistivity method was used to measure the distribution of the
resistivity beneath the subsurface thereby providing information about the surface geology.
This helped in the mapping of the various lithological units in the study area. The GPR is
a non-destructive method that uses electromagnetic radiation in the microwave band of the
radio spectrum and detects the reflected signals from subsurface structures at a receiver
antenna. This helped in the delineation of the lithological units in the area as well as the
depth of the water table. From these results, three main lithological units namely, 5 m thick
near surface clay/sandy layer, 20 to 30 m thick weathered granitoids both of which form
the saprolite layer and the granitoids bedrock. The water table depth was mapped to ranges
from 16 to 20 m. The particle size distribution analysis of soil samples from the area
showed that the soil consists averagely of 2 to 24% clay, 8 to 34 % silt, 41 to 86% sand
and 1 to 4% gravel. . Similar near surface investigations methods conducted within the
study area by the Building and road research Institute (BRRI), under the Council for
scientific and industrial research, as well as Ghana geological survey, and other similar
research methods of exploring for clay as a subsurface resources, within the Asia and the
north America has proving to be very successful for its economical viabilityness.
Description
Thesis submitted to the Department of Physics, Faculty of Physical and Computational Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Philosophy (Geophysics) (College of Science).
Keywords
Lithostratigraphy, Ghana, ERT, GPR