GEOPHYSICAL INVESTIGATION OF MARBLE OCCURRENCE IN TAKALAFIA AREA, AROUND ABUJA, CENTRAL NIGERIA

Abstract

Outcrops of marble occur in Takalafia environs, south of Abuja, Central Nigeria. In an attempt to determine the lateral and depth extent of the marble deposit, a geophysical investigation involving electrical resistivity and magnetic methods was carried out. The horizontal profiling and vertical depth sounding techniques were employed.

The marble deposit is characterised by both local resistivity highs (in the range of 20-61 ohm-m within an immediate background of less than 10 ohm-m and low magnetic effect of less than 800 gammas. The outline of the marble deposit based on the above characteristic has an approximately NE-SW trend with a lateral and width extent of about 400m and 40m, respectively. The deposit has a southwesterly plunge. The outline of the deposit and its plunge direction were confirmed by drilling from which borehole logs show marble thicknesses of 1.3-2.7m at the edges and 16.0 and 19.6m within the marble outlined zone.


KeyWords: Marble, Abuja, geophysical investigation, Plunge.


[Global Jnl Geol. Sci. Vol.1(1) 2003: 51-62]