IMPLICATIONS OF SHEAR ZONES ON NATURAL RESOURCE
MAPPING
ABSTRACT
The need for natural resources in Kenya has risen over the last couple of years. This is
with respect to the country's journey towards the realization of the vision 2030. Africa
remains largely untapped for oil and gas and other precious mineralizations. This is
evidenced by the discovery of oil in both Kenya and Uganda in environments where
explorers were skeptical about its existence in the past. This has opened doors for
explorations of hydrocarbons and other precious mineralizations in areas which had
been overlooked in the past. In this case, shear zones have been looked upon to
decipher their influence on the availability of natural resources. Therefore this project
aimed at providing eye-opening information on the importance of shear zones and how
they can be economically viable structures. It entailed the review of scientific papers,
publications, reports, maps and consultations with various academic experts and some
primary data and knowledge obtained during a field mapping exercise. The objectives of
the project were obtained. From the study it is clear that the main characteristics of
shear zones which make them good sites for exploration during natural resource
mapping are their long extent, the ability of temperatures to rise within them and their
structure and geometry. Also the mechanisms through which natural resources nucleate
within the shear zones are looked upon. They include fluid flow, permeability and creep
cavitation. The occurrence of precious mineralizations, hydrocarbon accumulations and
groundwater potential in shear zones around the world was looked upon. The
information obtained was then correlated to the sear zones in Kenya so as to see the
potentiality of natural resources. The results show that the Yatta, Mikei and Aswa shear
zones in Kenya harbor great potential for natural resource nucleation and should be
thoroughly mapped.