Groundwater prospecting of Bodo, Gokana Local Government Area of rivers state using electrical resistivity method

Abstract

Groundwater is the water found underground in the cracks and spaces of rock materials called Aquifer. The primary source of ground water is rain and snow that falls into the ground. In order to determine the layers and depth of aquifer, electrical resistivity method was used to investigate the availability of groundwater in the community. The instrument used in this survey is ABEM SAS 300 Terrameter, cables, hammer, electrode and measuring tape. The result of the survey showed that the depth of the aq.uifer at two different locations in the community varies significantly, the aquifer depth ranges from 30 m to 60 m. It was noted that the thickness of the different layers in the area varied also with location one (1) having an average thickness of 14.32 m and location two (2) with an average thickness of 10.00 m. Both locations have five layers with the highest resistivity values of 296.10 Ωm and 248.60 Ωm respectively. The result shows that, the depth of the aquifer in location 2 which is very close to oil spill site is shallow compared to that of location 1 which is a far more distance to location 2, therefore the groundwater in the second location will be contaminated overtime.

Keywords: Groundwater, Aquifer, Electrical Resistivity, Vertical Electrical Sounding (Ves)