Evaluation of Geotourism Potential of Eruku and its Environs: A Case for Ilado Hill

Abstract

Geotourism potential of Eruku and its environs with emphasis on Ilado hill was appraised.The methods adopted in this work includes geological field mapping and interview. From the field mapping exercise, the rocks in Eruku and its environs include migmatite, gneisses, amphibolite granites, diorite and pegmatite. The tourist attractions include remnant of ancient city wall (Odi Ilu), joining wall (Odi Abumo) and Ilado hill. Ilado hill was also discovered to be an abandoned ancient city with city gate made of gold with full regalia of African administrative offices. The conclusion drawn from this work is that Ilado hill fulfilled all the requirements to be a tourist destination, and hence, it is a good source of recreation while also serving as source of income for the Eruku City and government at large. Introduction Tourist attractions generally range from the naturally occurring structures/features to relatively unique man-made features [1-2]. While examples of the naturally occurring include features such as lake, wild life parks, natural dialect, language among others, the man-made features include ancient constructions such as prison, library, buildings etc [1]. The visit to these features is also aimed at either recreational purposes or educational goal. Recently, tourism is now being seen and considered as a source of income generation to both local people and government at large [3-4]. Geotourism generally describe some geological and/or geographical feature that make a place a relatively tourist destination. Eruku is a settlement that is located approximately 160 km east of Ilorin and about 5km west of Egbe. The area has attracted a lot of researchers because of among other things, her possible mineralization potential and geology except tourism potential. This work therefore aimed at appraising the tourism potential of Eruku with a focus on Ilado hill. Ilado hill is conically shapeand situated at about 2.5km east of Eruku and about 3.5km west of Koro (Fig. 1). The hill is relatively step sided and its peak has an elevation of 449meters above sea level. It is a conspicuous feature that can be seen kilometers from its surrounding and about 600 meters off the road along KoroEruku road. Materials and Methods The methods adopted in this work include field mapping and interview. The field mapping was done between January 13 and 20, 2020. During the field mapping exercise, the geology of the area was appraised and a geological map was produced; Ilado hill was combed to see some of the potential sites for tourist attractions that are associated with it. Necessary field photographs were also taken. Sequels to the success of this exercise, elderly indigenes which include the king, chiefs and a retired educationist in Eruku with vast knowledge of the hill were interrogated. Sustainable Geoscience and Geotourism Submitted: 2021-01-21 ISSN: 2624-8220, Vol. 4, pp 9-16 Revised: 2021-04-01 doi:10.18052/www.scipress.com/SGG.4.9 Accepted: 2021-04-21 CC BY 4.0. Published by SciPress Ltd, Switzerland, 2021 Online: 2021-04-30 This paper is an open access paper published under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) Results and Discussion Geology of the Study Area The geology of Eruku and its environs have been described in details by [5-8]. The rocks that dominate this area were estimated to be of Late Proterozoic to Early Paleozoic age [5]. The rocks are grossly divided into migmatite, gneisses, metabasalt, granite, gabbro, and pegmatite (Fig. 2). Migmatites occur essentially as pockets of rock within the gneiss. The migmatites are seen in the eastern part of the study area where they occur close to the main road. Also in the southwestern part of the study area, the migmatites are associated with gabbro. The migmatites seen in this area are fine to medium grained and have joints which are oriented in northeastern and northwestern directions essentially. There is no pegmatitic intrusion seen associated with this rock. Xenoliths of gabbro occur as remnants of either unmetamorphosed rocks or undigested pre-existing rock during the magmatic process. The migmatites are composed of 55% felsic minerals (quartz, Na-feldspar etc.) and 45% mafic minerals (biotite, muscovite etc.). This composition makes the migmatitic rocks to have intermediate colour i.e. greyish colour. They are generally low-lying outcrops with the largest covering an approximate area of 3.125km2 in the northeastern part and the smallest of approximate area of 0.94km2 in the northwestern part of the study area as shown in Fig. 2.The gneisses predominates this area covering approximately 80% of the total area studied. The gneisses consist essentially of biotite, quartz and sodic feldspar and can be divided into banded grey gneiss, granodiorite gneiss and granite gneiss. The gneisses trend mainly in northeastern direction and have sharp contacts with the granitic rocks that are present in this area. The gneisses like granite have been faulted with the fault planes occupied by pegmatitic intrusion which are differently oriented. Metabasalt occurs at the southwestern part of the study area and as xenolithic bodies and as pockets of rock within the gneisses. It is composed of about 90% of mafic minerals with some degree of metamorphism. Granites seen in the mapped area occur essentially in the extreme northeastern part and in the western part of the mapped area. The granite bodies seen are biotite granite, porphyritic granite and fine grained granite and deformed granites. These granites have very sharp contacts with the gneisses and are intruded by pegmatites that trend essentially in north-northeastern direction. They have faults trending essentially northeasternly. These fault zones are filled by pegmatite of different dimensions. The granite bodies are conically shaped in the western part while they form a ridge traceable over 4km length in the northeastern part of the area as shown in figure 2. Biotite granite has 35% biotite, 25% feldspar, 25% quartz and 15% of other minerals while the porphyritic granite is composed of almost equal composition of quartz, feldspar, biotite and other minerals. The feldspar occurs as phenocrysts within the groundmass of other minerals. Like the porphyritic granite, the fine grained granite has almost equal percentage of quartz, feldspar, biotite and other minerals. All these minerals are of almost equal grain size. The deformed granite has been remobilized. Gabbro seen in the study area occurs as boulders and cobbles arranged in southwestern-northeastern direction and occupy an approximate area of 0.2km2 in the eastern part of the study area. They have joints trending essentially in east-west and southeast-northwest direction. They are medium grained and composed essentially of mafic minerals. Other occurrences of gabbro were seen at the extreme southwestern part of the study area where it is stream exposed. The gabbro trend in eastwest direction and cover an area of 0.1km2 (Fig. 2).Other gabbro seen occur as xenolith within the gneisses in the southwestern part of the studied area and migmatitic rocks that are present in this area. Minor rocks seen in the area include pegmatite and quartzite. The pegmatites are hosted essentially by granites and gneisses; and are composed of biotite, quartz, mica, muscovite, feldspar (Na and K), magnetite and accessory minerals like tourmaline etc. The quartzites are seen in the western part of the area. They are part of zone pegmatites in this area and are closely associated with gabbroic rock in this area. 10 SGG Volume 4