GEOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF CLAY BODIES FROM EREDE-USEN AND UTESI COMMUNITIES IN EDO STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

Six clay sample were taken from Erede and Utesi in Benin City with the aim of running Geochemical and Mineralogical analyses of clay samples. X-ray diffraction and X-Ray Fluorescence were carried out on the samples. From the geochemical analysis the samples are dominated by SiO₂, which ranges from 54.82 - 63.38% (Average = 57.46). The limited range of SiO₂ content may be due to poor sorting and rapid deposition. Al₂O₃ ranges from 11.22 - 31.23% (Average = 25.58%), this may be attributed to composition of lithic fragments.Provenance studies was carried out on the sample which showed that the calculated Al₂O₃/TiO₂ ratios ranged from 10.6 to 25.4, which is indicative that the clays originated from intermediate to felsic igneous rocks. Both clay bodies differ in the presence of kaoline, Mica, Feldspar and Illite which was not present in the clay body from Erede which have minerals such as Montmorilonite, fluorapatite, and calcite which is suggestive that both clays bodies were from different sources and were formed under different condition. It can be said that the clay from Erede is more mature than that of Utesi and has undergo more weathering process.