Open Access IJG Application of Geophysical Methods to Building Foundation Studies

Copyright © 2013 Folahan Peter Ibitoye et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. A geophysical survey involving the electrical resistivity method utilizing the Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES) and Electri-cal Imaging Techniques was conducted around the premises of an area within south-western Nigeria with the aim of studying structural defects which may be responsible for future problems and characterizing the soil conditions of the site. A total of 15 VES stations were occupied using Schlumberger Configuration with AB/2 varying from 1 to 65 m. In the electrical imaging, dipole-dipole array was adopted and the two traverses were occupied in the S-N and E-W direc-tions close to where wall cracks and subsurface problems were manifested. Five main geoelectric sequences were deline-ated within the study area; these include the topsoil (clay and sandy clay), lateritic clay, weathered bedrock (clay, sandy clay and clayey sand), fractured bedrock and fresh basement. A major discontinuity (fracture zone) was discovered along the S-N direction, while a weak zone was also discovered along E-W direction. The result of this research has shown tha