Determination of Curie Point Depth, Heat Flow and Geothermal Gradient from High Resolution Aeromagnetic Data around Lamurde Area, Adamawa State, North-Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

Analysis of high resolution of aeromagnetic data was carried out over Lamurde, Adamawa state north-eastern Nigeria to determine the Curie point depth (CPD), heat flow and geothermal gradient. The aeromagnetic data used for this work was obtained at Nigerian geological survey agency, the total magnetic intensity was processed to produce the residual magnetic map which was divided into 4 overlapping blocks, each block was subjected to spectral analyses to obtain depths to the top boundary and centroid, while depth to bottom of the magnetic sources was calculated using empirical formula. The depths values obtained were then used to assess the CPD, heat flow and geothermal gradient in the area. The result shows that the CPD varies between 9.62 and 10.92 km with an average of 10.45 k, the heat flow varies between 150.73 and 132.78 mWm − 20 ⋅ ° C − 1 with an average of 139.12 mWm − 20 ⋅ ° C − 1 and the geothermal gradient in the study area varies between 12.16 and 15.67 ° C/km with an average of 13.39 ° C/km. In view of the above results, the high heat flow may be responsible for maturation of hydrocarbon in Benue Trough as well as responsible for the lead Zinc Mineralization. Again by implication, Lamurde area can be a good area for geothermal reservoir exploration for an alternative source for power generation.