Analysis of Airborne Magnetic Data for Geothermal Prospecting Over Dau, Upper-Benue Trough

Abstract The frequent power outage and unstable supply of electricity in Nigeria has affected the economic development of the nation in many areas, hence the need to look for other means of electricity generation such as geothermal energy. The strategic economic importance and availability of data from the study area arouse the interest of the researchers to focus their attention on the area in search of geological features favorable to geothermal exploration in the study area. In this work, the interpretation of the data extracted from the aeromagnetic maps of the study area was carried out using techniques involving Total magnetic intensity, Residual Anomaly, Tilt derivative, Horizontal derivative, Euler Deconvolution, Analytical signal and Geothermal Potential map. Results from analytic signal technique showed that the study area is segmented by faults and fractures. The depth analysis showed the study area being divided into three basic structures, the deep zone ranging between 1.063 to 2.022km, the intermediate zone ranging between 0.093 to 0.224 km and the shallow zone ranging between 0.036 to 0.077km. The generated geothermal potential map for the study area showed that there is high potentiality for geothermal energy in the North-West, West, South, East and North-Eastern part of the study area.