Characterisation for <i>Radioelements</i> over an Escarpment Feature(S): A Case Study of the Duku-Tarasa Gwandu Ridge Area of Birnin Kebbi NW Nigeria

Abstract

The paper presents results of radiometric investigations of an area (Duku-Tarasa) near the capital city of the State of Birnin Kebbi, NW Nigeria. The area of study is about 440 m × 420 m and encloses an Escarpment Feature/Structure on a sedimentary rock generally referred to as the Gwandu Formation. The Gwandu Formation (though not described in the paper) consists of continental lacustrine sediments and is the youngest Palaeogene Formation present in the Sokoto sector of the larger Iullemmeden Basin. The study measured, along some selected profiles across this escarpment feature, radiometric signatures using a Sim-Max G411 portable field gamma-ray spectrometer (giving counts for U, Th and K relative to the background values over the area), the ground total-field magnetic data (using the proton precession magnetometer) along those profiles and collected some (5) rock samples for flame photometry and AAS analyses towards the target proposition. Activity concentration levels due to potassium (K), uranium (U) and thorium (Th) were measured in the area along the five established profiles spaced at 50 metres. The results from these measurements and analyses were displayed (in Tables/histograms and gray level maps/images of concentrations of Uranium, Thorium and Potassium prospects) and interpreted (dismissing the magnetic data as seemingly passive as no filter was applied to the mapped data).