Structural deformation analysis of parts of Nigeria's southwestern precambrian basement complex using gradient techniques

A distinctive attribute of basement complex terrain is the widespread manifestation of structural deformations. Locating these structural deformations, such as faults, fractures, folds, and joints of the basement complex terrain, is a preface to hydrogeologic, engineering, and environmental studies as well as mineral resource exploration programs. The present study aims to delineate the subsurface structures and establish geometry and depths of magnetic anomalies in the region of Igarra Schist Belt of parts of the Southwestern Precambrian Basement Complex of Nigeria using gradient (Euler deconvolution and filtering) techniques. The 3D Euler approach estimates the location of a simple entity using magnetic field measurements by splitting the data into windows of subsequent measurements. Based on its structural index, each window calculates a single average depth and magnetic source position, while filtering is essentially employed to delineate subsurface geologic features using standard deviation. To filter data, the standard deviation filter returns the data's local distribution, with the magnitude of the effect depending on the feature's quantity. The finding showed lots of these geological features (± 95%) are located at shallow depths 0f 0 - 300 m and few are located at depths >300 m. The research region's combined data was used to generate a consistent structural map that depicted the likely placements and trends of the putatively fractured/faulted zone, as well as additional basement structures that formed in tetra-modal NE-SW, ESE-WNW, ENE-WSW, and E-W directions. These structural tendencies, which vary in intensity and length, are sturdily related to tectonic activities and over and above guidance for geoelectric studies required for hydrogeologic and engineering explorations.