Vertical Electrical Sounding Investigation of Aquifer Composition and Its Potential to Yield Groundwater in Some Selected Towns in Bida Basin of North Central Nigeria

Groundwater resource is found beneath the earth crust within the pore spaces or voids between soil particles. Successful groundwater exploration either for domestic, agricultural or industrial uses, pre-drilling information is necessary to determine the depth and yield of groundwater location. Detailed knowledge of the aquifer layer as well as the lithology composition in any successful borehole drilling project is paramount and essential that cannot be ignored. Different geological formations have different groundwater yield potential; therefore, understanding these formations in groundwater exploration becomes imperative. This study adopts Vertical Electrical sounding in sixteen locations group into four stations using geotron G41 earth resistivity meter; with Wenner configuration and maximum electrode spacing at 400m. The resistivity results were processed using the res1d.exe inversion software. Sounding curves were plotted as apparent resistivity against electrode spacing in Wenner electrode array. Representative resistivity sounding curves types obtained after inversion was used to delineate the aquifer and 1D geoelectric sections. The results show five geoelectric layers in the study area namely: top layer, Clay/sand, Clay, Sand Stone and Sand Clay layer. The groundwater bearing layer varies between 37–70 meters across the study Area.