Thesis Abstract

This study is aimed at using the characteristics of polluted soil to delineate different soil
layers and deduce ways of providing remediation to the problems generated as a
result of soil pollution using Electrical Resistivity Method.

An inversion of the measured apparent resistivity values using a computer program was carried
out to determine the true subsurface resistivity. This method was used to
estimate the lateral and vertical extend to which a particular soil has been
contaminated by oil or hydrocarbon. In the analysis of the horizontal extent of
contamination, the horizontal resistivity profiling (HRP) was applied while in
the vertical extent, the vertical electrical sounding (VES) was applied. Sandy
soil polluted by crude oil indicated increases in resistivity with increase in
percentages of pollution resulting probably from their individual density which
makes it difficult to penetrate through the sand molecules despite the soil’s
porosity. Silty soil showed increase in resistivity with increasing percentage
of pollution for all the pollutants and polluted clay soil indicated total
increment in resistivity with increasing percentage pollution for all the
pollutants, probably because of its high permeability and low porosity from the

Thesis Overview