To achieve the stated objectives of the Field Camp, the selected participants were taken through a five-phased program over a period of three weeks.
First, a virtual orientation exercise was held for all participants to provide them with a careful description of the 2020 SEG Field Camp aims and objectives, respective timelines and regulations.
Phase 1
In-House Training: This phase marked the beginning of the program. It commenced on the 20th of August 2020 and lasted for a week featuring training classes, seminars, workshops, panel session and break-out sessions. The participants were taken through series of trainings and hands-on sessions encompassing topics on geophysical data acquisition, data analysis and data interpretation. Desk studies and literature reviews were incorporated into this phase to ensure that participants had proper understanding of the nature of the study area. The training classes were 100% visual aided, it featured practical, and hands-on sessions on data acquisition models, field data analysis and data interpretation.
Additionally, interactive sessions were held with industry personnel, academics, and government officials on topics ranging from ICT, governmental regulations and policies, research and scholarship opportunities and student-industry. During these sessions, A special seminar tagged the “geopreneur” was also carried out to equip participants with information needed to convert their geological ideas to business realities.
Workshops served as focused-based sessions which trained the participants principally on soft skills, emotional intelligence, workplace ethics, gender balancing, field safety requirements among others.
Lastly, the participants, through a panel session featuring key industry players in the Nigerian oil and gas sector were exposed to the latest happenings in the world of geosciences and also engaged in extracurricular activities including movie evening, inter-team public speaking contests, football and volleyball competitions, and photo-contests.
Phase 2
Reconnaissance Survey: In this phase, the participants were divided into 2 teams of 15 students each and representatives of each team carried out reconnaissance survey to ascertain the accessibility of the area, availability and location of outcrops for geologic studies.
Phase 3
Field Work: Upon arrival of the participants to the study area on Monday, 31st of August, 2020, they were taken through an in-depth mapping exercise by the Camp Director, to delineate the geologic boundaries of the Formations underlying the study area, define the spatial distribution of the outcropping lithologies and identify viable points for subsequent geophysical surveys. This was followed by a 4-day geophysical data acquisition using the electrical resistivity method at 30 stations within the area.
At the end of each day ‘s activity, the tasking field works were complemented with a social activity christened “Camp Circle”. This offered the participants an avenue to cool off and interact with their co-campers and camp officers. It featured talent hunts, games, quizzes, and debates in addition to feedback sessions where campers could air their views on certain camp activities and proffer solutions to any identified challenge.
Phase 4
Post-Field Work: In this phase, the participants worked collectively in their various teams under the supervision of the Camp Director to analyse and interpret the data collected during the field work exercise. The geophysical data was analysed using geophysical software such as Ipi2win and res2div to understand the groundwater potential, contamination and vulnerability level of the area. The results of the interpretation were graded by experts.
Phase 5
Sensitization: To end the field camp, an environmental awareness program was conducted through the entire area on the 9th of September, 2020 to educate the locals on environmental pollution and its adverse effect on groundwater within the community.