Geothermal and radioactive heat studies of parts of southern Bida basin, Nigeria and the surrounding basement rocks

Abstract

Aeromagnetic and aeroradiometric data covering parts of southern Bida basin, Nigeria and the surrounding basement rocks were processed and interpreted. The research covered both basin and basement rock sections, and was aimed at determining the geothermal heat flow and radioactive heat characteristics of the survey area. The number of data points used for analysis were 2,937, obtained from the digitization of eleven ½ degrees by ½ degrees contour maps. Data processing methods used in the study include determination of heat from radiometric data, regional?residual separation of the total magnetic intensity data, determination of depth?to?top and depth?to?bottom of magnetic sources and estimation of field scaling exponent using the Fractal technique. The research results gave geothermal heat flow values ranging from 69.167 mWm^-2 to 124.821 mWm^-2 with an average value of 90.959 mWm^-2 and radioactive heat values ranging from 0.91 to 4.53 µW/m³ with an average value of 2.28 µW/m³. Deductions made from the survey are, the field scaling exponent varies linearly with depth of downward continuation and Katakwa is a prospect area for geothermal heat.