Horizontal infiltration and trace element measurements for Savannah soils in Zaria, Nigeria

Abstract

Laboratory investigations of horizontal infiltration were carried out on three Zaria soils (Samaru, Tudun Wada and the Kubanni river basin Fadama wet-land soils) in Nigeria, which are principally alfisols. Diffusivity was found to be -77.5 x 10 -2 cm 2 s-1, -8.4 x 10 -2 cm 2 s-1 and -117.0 x 10 -2 cm 2 s-1 respectively for the three soils. Other infiltration characteristics including, sorptivity and water flux through the soils were also measured.. Concentration data for twenty-one elements ( Sb, Ba, Ce, Co, Cr, Cs, Eu, Hf, Fe, La, Lu, Nd, K, Rb, Sc, Na, Ta, Th, U, Yb, Zn) were also determined for the three soils. The study revealed that although the mineralogy of the soils appeared similar based on their mean elemental compositions, the Fadama soils showed high sorptivity, indicative of water-logged conditions which is characteristic of wet-lands.

Keywords: Nigerian Soils, Darcy\'s equation, infiltration, ko-standardization, neutron Activation analysis


Nigerian Journal of Physics Vol. 18 (1) 2006: pp.13-18