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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Earth Sci.
Sec. Geoscience and Society
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feart.2024.1400283
This article is part of the Research Topic Near-Surface Geophysics in Latin American Contexts: Its Applications, Education and Societal Perspectives as a whole View all 5 articles

Geoelectrical and seismoelectric mapping of subsurface pollution in a closed landfill near the Tongo Bassa and Ngongue river, Douala Cameroon

Provisionally accepted
ZEBAZE KEVIN ZEBAZE KEVIN 1,2,3*Djieto Lordon Djieto Lordon 2Jidong Yang Jidong Yang 1*Jianping Huang Jianping Huang 1José P. Clotaire José P. Clotaire 3Onguene Rapheal Onguene Rapheal 4Kengue Dirane Kengue Dirane 2Mbouemboue Ahmed Mbouemboue Ahmed 2,3
  • 1 Shengli College, China University of Petroleum (Huadong), Dongying, China
  • 2 Faculty of Science, University of Buea, Buea, Cameroon
  • 3 Institut de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (IRGM), Yaounde, Cameroon
  • 4 University Institute of Technology Douala, Douala, Littoral, Cameroon

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Located in Douala V (Cameroon), Makepé Missoké is a lowland area that is influenced by the Tongo Bassa and Ngongué rivers. The site has a closed dumpsite, that operated from the 1975's to 2003 for the disposal and storage of domestic waste produced in Douala. Geoelectric profiling (ERT) coupled with seismoelectric imaging was used to characterize the shallow aquifer of the Douala subbasin and map subsurface pollution. The aquifer geometry, hydraulic characteristics, permeability, lithology and leachate plume extent were determined. Fourteen geoelectrical profiles were deployed between June and August 2018 and March 2019. Along these lines, 49 sets of seismo-electric point data were collected in December 2021. A total of 118 wells drilled (2018) were used to obtain water level and topographic data. This survey enables us to visualize waste infiltration and migration within Makepé. The drilled wells indicate that the main lithologies observed are clay, sandy clay, sand, clayey sand and gravel. The leachate plume observed after processing the electric profiles had a resistivity signature of ≤ 10 Ωm, and high electrical conductivity are observed in some wells. The leachate and migrates within the subsurface along a northwest-southwest trend, where. Ggroundwater pollution is observed through due to leachate infiltration. and This infiltration resulted inthe poor water quality indices in some collected samples.are confirmed to have high electrical conductivity values. This Such pollution is common in unconfined aquifers (< 50 m) due to the absence of a confining layer at the landfill. An increase in resistivity values with depth toward the northeast direction indicates progressive vertical dilution during leachate mineralization. This study integrated geoelectric and seismoelectric tomography with basic water chemistry analysis to effectively characterize the groundwater within the phreatic Quaternary/Mio-Pliocene aquifers of the Douala basin.

    Keywords: Groundwater, landfill, Electrical imaging, Seismo-electric Imaging, aquifer, leachate

    Received: 13 Mar 2024; Accepted: 18 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 KEVIN, Lordon, Yang, Huang, Clotaire, Rapheal, Dirane and Ahmed. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    ZEBAZE KEVIN, Shengli College, China University of Petroleum (Huadong), Dongying, China
    Jidong Yang, Shengli College, China University of Petroleum (Huadong), Dongying, China

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