ABSTRACT
This study was carried out to determine soil competence around the University of Benin and its environs using electrical resistivity tomography method.
The Wenner Schlumberger Array Profiling method was used to give information of the subsurface resistivity. Figure 4.1 and 4.2 shows the result and map of all 2D electrical resisitivity inverse models and they are displayed as cross section of the true resistivity distribution of the subsurface with depth of 31. 9m along both profile. Using RES2DINV software, the measure and calculated resistivities were processed and inverted to obtain the 2D inverse Resistivity structure/model.
The result of the study showed that in ERT 1, highly competent soil were observed with resistivity values between 702Ωm and greater than 2000Ωm, which means that the area is underlain by clay sand at the top and sand/laterite/bedrock at the bottom. ERT 2 is characterized by highly competent soils with high resistivity values between 160Ωm to greater than 1242 Ωm, which indicates that the soil is underlain by sand/laterite/bedrocks.
Furthermore, the study shows that though most part of the area contains soil that have high competency, because of the presence of clay which on most occasion in the study area are expandable, detailed geophysical and civil engineering studies should be carried out before the erection of high rising engineering structures such as network masts, buildings and water tanks within the study area.
