Estimation of soil resistivity by the assembly of a vertical electrical sounding equipment at a university campus at Turbaco, Bolivar

Abstract

A low-cost geoelectric equipment was implemented for academic purposes to carry out the Vertical Electrical Sounding method in order to determine the resistivity and depth of a point on the surface of a university zone and obtain the contrasts of that resistivity parameter for each type of soil. A model was reproduced at the laboratory to calibrate the equipment, and then the technique was tested in the field. Among the results, layers of sandy loam, soft limestone and dark clay with thicknesses of 0.3 m, 0.75 m and 12 m respectively were obtained, finally a clear clay was obtained whose thickness is unknown. These were compared with reference samples by well drilling method. There was a concordance between the results through the method of statistical confidence intervals with a normal distribution. The data behaved according to a soil model of lower-higher-lower resistivity. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.