JOURNAL GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF INDIA

Vol.77, January 2011, pp.73-81

2-D Electrical Imaging in Some Geotechnical Investigation

of Madhupur Clays, Bangladesh

A.S.M. SHAMAUN KABIR*, DELWAR HOSSAIN** and RASHED ABDULLAH**

*Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Ltd. (BAPEX), Dhaka - 1217
**Department of Geological Sciences, Jahangirnagar University. Dhaka - 1342
Email: shamaunm@yahoo.com

Abstract: Electrical imaging or electrical tomography is a survey technique suitable for the investigation of areas of
shallow complex geology, where the use of other electrical and electromagnetic techniques is less effective. An electrical
image has been delineated at a site located in front of the Department of Geological Sciences, Jahangirnagar University,
Dhaka, Bangladesh. 16 soil samples were collected from two boreholes located on the image line and geotechnical
parameters such as unit weight, water content, grain size, plastic limit, liquid limit and plasticity index were measured in
the laboratory. These geotechnical parameters were compared with the measured electrical resistivity.

Keywords: Electrical tomography, Madhupur clays, Bangladesh.

INTRODUCTION technique is particularly useful in shallow subsurface

Two popular traditional DC electric techniques to image investigations, including hydrogeological, geotechnical
the resistivity structure of the shallow subsurface are the and environmental studies (Griffiths and Barker, 1993, 1994;
vertical electric sounding (VES) and the electric profiling Neiderleithinger, 1994; Barker, 1996; Loke, 2000; Giao
(EP) (Giao et al. 2003). In practice, these methods commonly et al. 2003).
employ a 4-electrode configuration. The VES method is used The present work deals with a multielectrode electrical
for investigating the change in resistivity with depth, whereas survey at Jahangirnagar University campus. It also
EP - in the horizontal direction. The limitation of the VES involves analysis of some basic geotechnical properties (such
is the assumption of a 1-D Earth that does not occur in as moisture content, specific gravity, grain size, index
many practical situations. The limitation of the EP is that parameters) of samples collected from different depths of
only one-depth level information can be obtained (Giao et the bore holes located along the study line and a comparison
al. 2003). Also, as both methods can only acquire a limited between resistivity and other geotechnical properties.
number of data points, the model obtained from an inversion
of the data has a rather low resolution. For soils with a small
GENERAL GEOLOGY
resistivity contrast between them, the traditional DC electric
techniques proved to be not very effective, especially for The study site is located in the Madhupur Tract in Savar
geotechnical projects. region, Dhaka, which is a north-easterly tilted fault-block
The development of practical electrical tomography bounded on the west by a series of NW-SE trending en-
field systems (Griffiths et al. 1990) and effective processing echelon faults including the Dhamrai, Maijail and Kaliakair
and inversion software (Loke and Barker, 1995, 1996) makes (Fig. 1). The north and northeastern boundary is delineated
electrical resistivity surveys especially powerful. The by the NW-SE trending Banar fault downthrown to the
main advantages of electrical imaging may include northeast (Pitman, 1984). On the southeast, the tract is
investigating variations of resistivity both laterally and marked by a NE-SW basement controlled fault zone
vertically (i.e. mapping “true” resistivity), increased (Chowdhury et al. 1985) passing through the Meghna River
resolution of the subsurface due to large amount of data, at the northwest, which is thought to be the northeasterly
possibility of combining 2-D pseudosections into a 3-D extension, through the Swatch of No Ground, of the
model (when electrode spreads are arranged in parallel) continental margin flextures of the east coast of India during
and fast computer-controlled data acquisition. The the initial splitting of the Gondwanaland.

0016-7622/2011-77-1-73/$ 1.00 © GEOL. SOC. INDIA

74 A. S. M. SHAMAUN KABIR AND OTHERS

Fig.1. Tectonic map of the Dhaka region (after WASA, 1991).

The Madhupur and the Barind Tracts represent a underlain and overlain by the Dupi Tila Formation and
tectonically uplifted surface. The reason for the uplift of the Alluvium Formation, respectively. The so-called Madhupur
red bed islands in the Bengal Basin was explained by Clay Formation has recently been named as the Madhupur
Fergusson (1963) and others. Fergusson (1963) believes Clay Residuum by Alam et al. (1990). However, an attempt
that the Madhupur region has been uplifted in very has been made to establish a generalized stratigraphic
recent time and he attributes it to the earthquake of 1762. succession according to Alam (1988) and Alam et al. (1990).
He suggests that the Madhupur Jungle occurs along the The lithology as well as the origin and age of the Madhupur
axis of the belt of “Volcano Action”, which extends in a Clay units are described in Table 1 (Hossain, 2000).
northwestern direction through Chittagong and Dhaka.
Fergusson (1963) considers numerous low lakes in the
OUTLINE OF FIELD OPERATIONS
Sylhet Basin to be caused by the subsidence of compensatory
to the elevation of the Madhupur Jungle. The resistivity imaging data were collected at a site
The highland of the Madhupur Tract in the Dhaka city located in front of the Department of Geological Sciences,
and Savar area represents the Madhupur Clay Formation, Jahangirnagar University Campus, Dhaka, during the
the oldest exposed rock of the area. It is unconformably month of October 2005 (Fig.2).

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 2-D ELECTRICAL IMAGING IN SOME GEOTECHNICAL INVESTIGATION OF MADHUPUR CLAYS, BANGLADESH 75

Table 1. Stratigraphic succession of the Madhupur tract in Dhaka region 25 electrodes spaced 1 m apart indicating a maximum depth
Thickness of 4 m. Measurements made using this arrangement, are
Age Formation Lithology
(m) less affected by near-surface resistivity variations compared
Low Land Alluvium with dipole-dipole arrangement, which distorts the signal.
River Bed Deposits grey sand Since the subsurface structure is not too complex, the
and silty sand, medium to fine variable
grained and unconsolidated
unprocessed images acquired using this array are relatively
simple in form and closely related spatially to the bodies
- - - - - - Local unconformity - - - - -
giving rise to them, i.e., this array is a satisfactory
Natural Levee and Interstream
deposits Fine sand, sandy silt,
configuration for imaging purposes. This array also has
Alluvium silt and clayey silt, grey, massive better vertical resolution in comparison to other arrays.
Holocene

and friable. Figure 3 illustrates the field procedure of the manual

Back Swamp and Depression electrical imaging of the line measured in this study. The
Deposits Clay and silty clay, grey, 0-25 roll-on mode has been employed to build up the data for the
bluish grey to dark grey to black, electrical image. All the electrodes were addressable as either
peaty and sticky.
C1, C2, P1, or P2. This mode takes measurements for all levels
High Land Alluvium
(n=1-8) for electrode 1 before continuing in the same way
Mainly silt and clay, occasionally
sand, occurs mainly as infilling for electrode 2 and so on and is useful in manual electrical
of incised channels on the high imaging. Whereas, the other mode, traverse mode, allows
land of the Madhupur Tract above the completion of all measurements with level n=1 before
the present flood level.
commencing with the level n=2 measurements and so on.
- - - - - - Local unconformity - - - - - To make a measurement of ground resistivity, current, I,
Red Clay is passed into the ground through two electrodes C1 and C2,
Highly weathered, brownish red
and voltage, V, is measured across a second pair of electrodes
to brick red, massive, sticky, inter-
bedded with fine sand and silt and P1 and P2. From a knowledge of the resistance, R (=V/I),
contains ferruginous concretions and the inter-electrode distances, an apparent ground
and ferruginous and calcareous resistivity can be calculated (Barker, 1996).
Pleistocene

Madhupur nodules, plant roots and manganese 6-25

Profiles of resistivity measurements were made by
Clay spots.
increasing the electrode spacing from ‘a’ to multiples n of
Mottled Clay
‘a’. As the spacing is increased, the measurements increase
Earthy grey with mottlings of red,
brown, yellow, and orange colours; with depth. Since increasing the electrode separation weights
massive, contains micas and the observed apparent resistivity towards greater depth, the
calcareous nodules. It is oolitic and measurement is plotted beneath the centre of the four
sticky, and shows the increasing
electrodes used, at a depth proportional to the electrode
amount of sand to the base.
separation ‘a’, usually at a depth of a/2 (Edwards, 1977;
- - - - - Regional unconformity - - - -
Barker, 1989). This “median depth of investigation” as it is
Yellow to yellowish grey, massive,
called is found from experiment (Edwards, 1977; Barker,
cross bedded, moderately consoli-
dated, fine to medium grained as 1989) to be the optimum plotting depth in the case of
Pliocene

Dupi Tila well as coarse grained sands with 120 homogeneous ground. This plotting depth scales the vertical
intraformational clay beds and variations in measured apparent resistivity to approximate
contains large silicified wood
the actual resistivity changes with depth. The data can then
fragments and occasional gravels
at depth be contoured to produce an apparent resistivity depth section
or pseudosection considered as a smooth image from which
- - - - - - - - Base not seen - - - - - - - -
useful information can be obtained by visual inspection.

The principles of electrical tomography have been

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
described by many researchers (Barker, 1996; Loke, 2000).
For the multielectrode surveys described here, an IGIS The inversion routine is based on the smoothness-
DDR3 DC Resistivity Meter has been used. The voltage constrained least-squares method. A new implementation
used in this study ranges from 50 to 200 mv. The 2-D profiles of the least-squares method based on a quasi-Newton
were acquired using Wenner arrangement with an array of optimization technique can also be used (Loke, 2000). The

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76 A. S. M. SHAMAUN KABIR AND OTHERS

Fig.2. Location of the electrical image line at the Jahangirnagar University.

Fig.3. The measurement sequence used for preparing a pseudosection. Unit electrode spacing a = 1 m. C and P are current and potential
electrodes, respectively.

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 2-D ELECTRICAL IMAGING IN SOME GEOTECHNICAL INVESTIGATION OF MADHUPUR CLAYS, BANGLADESH 77

Fig.4. The results of electrical imaging at the study site. (a) Pseudosection of measured apparent resistivity. (b) Pseudosection of
calculated apparent resistivity. (c) Inverted model.

technique has proved to be markedly affective in eliminating underlying higher resistivity material is evident on this
electrode geometry effects so that the final processed image pseudosection. The processed image (Fig. 4c) provides a
provides a good representation of the subsurface geology. model of true bulk resistivity with a true depth scale from
The inversion approaches are explained in detail in the which the computed pseudosection of Fig. 4b is obtained.
Res2Dinv manual and the papers (Loke and Barker, 1995, As seen on the observed pseudosection, significant
1996). The apparent resistivity values measured first have heterogeneity is also evident on the true image (Fig. 4c).
been typed into a text file. The data are arranged in an ASCII This may be related with variation in lithology and in
delimited manner where blank space is used to separate moisture content. The electrical image (Fig. 4c) reveals
different numerical data items. The program requires the three very low resistivity patches (2-6 Ωm) at 2, 6 and
data to be arranged in a certain format. The l2 – norm 11.5 m distance along the line and a high resistivity patch
inversion method recommended for the case of a gradual (≈ 45 Ωm) at its right from 15-22 m distance.
change of subsurface resistivity has been used in this In order to investigate the subsurface model, the image
analysis. The results of electric imaging at the study site line was calibrated by bore hole data of BH-01 and BH-02
are presented in Fig. 4. The image line is 24 m long and which are separated from each other by 5.8 m. The BH-01
oriented from W to E. and BH-02 were 2 m and 2.5 m deep, respectively, and
The pseudosection of measured apparent resistivity samples were collected at 25 cm intervals.
(Fig. 4a) reveals that the resistivity changes both horizontally The basic geotechnical properties of the collected
and vertically in a complicated way, although a general samples were measured using Standard methods, e.g.
increase in resistivity with depth is apparent. A very irregular American Society of Testing Material (ASTM, 1974). The
topography between the top heterogeneous ground and the grain size distributions were measured in the Soil Research

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78 A. S. M. SHAMAUN KABIR AND OTHERS

Development Institute (SRDI), Dhaka, Bangladesh and the bottle and dry soil, M3 = Mass of density bottle, soil and
other properties like moisture content (Wn), liquid limit water, and M4 = Mass of density bottle when full of water.
(WL), plastic limit (WP), plasticity index (WPI), specific The liquid limit of different samples was determined
gravity(J) were measured in the Engineering Geology using Cassagrande apparatus where the plastic limit was
Laboratory, Department of Geological Sciences, Jahangir- determined by the rolling thread method. The plastic limit
nagar University. is the lowest water content at which the soil remains in a
Natural moisture content has been calculated using the plastic state. The plastic limit depends on the amount and
following formula: type of clay present in the soil. The plasticity index is the
difference between the liquid limit and plastic limit. It is the
M1 — M3 range of moisture content in which a soil is plastic. When a
Wr = x 100
M3 — M1 plastic limit is equal or greater than the liquid limit, the
plasticity index is recorded as zero. The plasticity index
Where M1 = Mass of container, M2 = Mass of container was determined using the following formula:
and wet soil, and M3 = Mass of container and dry soil.
WPI = WL - WP
The specific gravity of the samples was determined by
the density bottle (Pycnometer) using following equation: Where WPI = Plasticity index, WL = Liquid limit, and
WP = Plastic limit.
(M2 — M1) The geotechnical properties of the collected samples
γ =
(M4 — M1) (M1 — M2) measured and generalized soil profiles of BH-01 and BH-
02 are shown in Figs.5 and 6, respectively. The soil
Where M1 = Mass of density bottle, M2 = Mass of density parameters presented in Figs. 5 and 6 include unit weight

Fig.5. Basic geotechnical properties of BH-01.

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 2-D ELECTRICAL IMAGING IN SOME GEOTECHNICAL INVESTIGATION OF MADHUPUR CLAYS, BANGLADESH 79

Fig.6. Basic geotechnical properties of BH-02.

(J), grain size (%), natural water content (W n), liquid limit graphical representation of Wn, WP, WPI and WL (Fig. 6)
(WL), plastic limit (WP), and plasticity index (WPI). shows that the values gradually decrease from top to bottom.
The top and bottom zones of BH-01 are more sandy In both cases of BH-01 and BH-02, the unit weight appears
than the middle one, which has got increased clay and silt to decrease with a decrease in moisture content.
percentage (Fig. 5). The natural water content of the middle The near sub-surface soils in the study area are well
zone is, accordingly, higher than the top and bottom ones. mapped by electrical imaging survey. Although, a small unit
This might cause the decrease in resistivity to about 6 :m. electrode spacing used in imaging resulted in a better
The WP is higher in the top zone and slightly increases resolution, the depth of investigation became small. The later
towards the bottom. The WPI and WL are higher for the amounted to about 3 m, i.e., three-eighths of the maximum
anomalous zone in comparison to those of zones above and possible measurement separation.
below it. The electrical resistivity parameter of Madhupur clay
Borehole BH-02 is characterized by a remarkable was correlated with some other geotechnical parameters such
increase in sand content with depth as well as a as water content, plasticity index, unit weight and depth of
corresponding decrease in moisture content (Fig. 6). This sample collection (Fig. 7). Among these parameters, water
appears to be consistent with an anomalously high resistivity content and sample depth appear to be correlated with
(>40 :m) in the inverse model section (Fig. 4c). The electrical resistivity.

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80 A. S. M. SHAMAUN KABIR AND OTHERS

a b
BH-01 BH-02 BH -01 BH -02
100 100

10 10

Resi sti vi ty
Resistivity

1 1

0.1
0. 1
10 100 1000 1 10 100
Water content, Wn (%) Pl asti ci ty, W PL (%)

c d
BH-01 BH-02 BH-01 BH-02
100 100

10 10
Resistivity

Resistivity

1 1

0.1 0.1
0.1 1 10 10 100 1000
Unit
Unitweight,
weight (gm/cm3)
(gm/cm3) Depth (cm)

Fig.7. Approximate relationship between the electric resistivity and other geotechnical parameters for Madhupur Clays, i.e. (a) water
content, (b) platicity, (c) unit weight and (d) depth of sampling.

CONCLUSIONS parameters shows that water content and depth of sampling

Electrical Imaging tool has quite successfully been have got some correlation with resistivity. However,
utilized to provide a cost effective characterization of the more data need to be involved in substantiating such a
near surface variations in geologic and soil strata in the correlation.
Madhupur Tract, Bangladesh. The technique appears to be
helpful in differentiating silty clay and sandy clay soils in Acknowledgements: The first author (ASMSK) has
this area. The silty clay soil has a resistivity of 5 to 20 Ωm, undertaken the present study as a partial fulfillment for the
and the sandy clay soil has a resistivity of 15 to 45 Ωm. degree of Master of Science in Geological Sciences,
The depth of investigation using electrical imaging in Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka. He is thankful to the
the Madhupur clays was about 3 m, i.e., three-eights of the Department of Geological Sciences, Jahangirnagar
maximum possible measurement separation. Thus, for University for laboratory facilities. The authors sincerely
investigating Madhupur clay of 12 m thick, the line length acknowledge the cooperation extended by the Director,
should be 96 m and the maximum possible measurement Soil Research Development Institute, Dhaka for grain size
separation should be 32 m. analysis. Thanks are due to the anonymous reviewer for
Plotting electrical resistivity vs. different geotechnical critically reviewing the manuscript.

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 2-D ELECTRICAL IMAGING IN SOME GEOTECHNICAL INVESTIGATION OF MADHUPUR CLAYS, BANGLADESH 81

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(Received: 16 November 2009; Revised form accepted: 26 July 2010)

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