CHAPTER TWO

GEOLOGY OF THE AREA

2.1: Introduction
The stratigraphy i.e. lithology, thickness and depth of occurrence of different geologic
formation strongly influences the engineering investigation of soil samples of a
particular area along with other geological, structural and tectonic activities. The
engineering properties should be multi- disciplinary and include geotechnical,
engineering and mineralogy of the soils (Smith, 1985). In this chapter, a brief
description of physiography likes topography and relief, drainage system, landforms,
geology, stratigraphy etc. are discussed.

2.2: Physiographic description of the Studied Area

2.2.1: Topography and Relief

The capital city Dhaka is topographically divided individual into the low level plateau
in the eastern and southern parts of city, the high level plateau, in the north with low
lands around them. On the border between the low lands and the plateau, there are
precipices with relative height of 3 to 6 meters. It is also mentioned that Dhaka city is
located at the southern end of the plateau called “East Balindo Plateau”.

Topographically, the investigated area is located in Dhaka terrace and Bhawal Garh of
the Madhupur Tract (Alam, 1988). The high lands of the Dhaka city and Savar areas
remain above the present - flood level and average elevation is greater than 7 m above
mean sea level. The low relief with many low depressions is the characteristic of
Dhaka city (figure 2.1). The average elevation of the city is about 6m above mean sea
level. The ground surface slopes towards both east and west but general slope is from
the north towards the south and southeast (Sharif, 1996).

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 Figure 2.1: Topographic map of Dhaka City (After SOB, 1955).

2.2.2: Drainage system

Dhaka city lies within the delta formed by the confluence of two great river systems
as they approach the Bay of Bengal, the Ganges River and the Meghna-Brahmaputra
complex lose their identities in the vicinity of Dhaka (Naim, 1996). Dhaka is bounded
on all four sides by three major rivers and one khal. The rivers are the Turag in the
west, the Balu River in the east and the Burigonga River in the south and south-east
(figure 2.2). The Tongi khal lies in the north of the city (Sharif, 1996).

The Turag River comes from the north and joins the Burigonga River near Mirpur.
The Balu River also comes from the north and joins the Lakhya River near Demra.
The Tongi Khal takes water from the Turag River and discharges it into the Balu
River. The Burigonga is a tidal river which issues from the north west and flows

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towards the south east. The city is traversed by numerous Khal, Streams and Lakes.
The rivers commonly show dendritic pattern except the western part of the river
system which shows trellis pattern (Sharif, 1996). Most of these streams and Khals
are seasonal, ill drained and fed by the monsoon water.

The study area is traversed by ponds and lakes.The Banani lake is located at the north
eastern center of the study area.The gulshan lake is also situated at the north eastern
part of the area. At the north western part situates The Zia khal.

Figure 2.2: Drainage map of Dhaka City (After SOB, 1955)

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2.2.3: Landform Types
There are three distinct land forms characterized by Dhaka city. These are
1) high lands,
2) low lands,
3) Abandoned channels and depressions.

The high land areas have greater N-S extent and constitute about 40% of the land
areas. The extreme north western and Middle Western parts of the city are highly
eroded and the ground surface elevation (about 5 to 6m) does not represent the actual
elevation. This unit remains unaffected during flooding. The peripheral part of the
city is low and constitutes about 35% of the land areas. The ground surface elevation
of this unit is 3 to 3.5m.It is affected by flood during monsoon season. Abandoned
channels and depression marks the north western, central eastern and south eastern
part of the city which constitute about 25% of the land areas. The general elevation is
1.5 to 2.5m and sometimes with elevations below sea level (Sharif, 1996).

2.3: Structural aspect of the Study Area

The studied area is mainly covered by the fluvial flood plain deposits of Quaternary
age (Monsur and Papae, 1990). Besides the low and high land alluvial deposits of the
study area is composed of Madhupur clay (Mottled and Red clay). This Madhupur
Clay was referred to in the older literature as the "Older alluvium" on the assumption
that they are flood plain deposits of ancient river (figure 2.3).

The study area includes the southwestern part of Madhupur Tract under the Tangail-
Tripura High. This uplifted Pleistocene terrace is bounded by the Ganges floodplain
in the east, the Brahmaputra floodplain in the north, the Jamuna floodplain in the
west.

Geologically it is a terrace from 01 to 10 meters above the adjacent floodplains. These

uplifted elongated and tilled horst blocks, separated from Barind Tract by N-S
trending faulted graben that is now occupied by the river Brhmaputra (Khondakar,
1997). The north and northeastern boundary is delimited by the NW-SE trending
Banar fault (Figure-2.5) down thrown to the northeast (Pitman, 1984). On the south,

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the tract is marked by a NE-SW basement control fault zone (Chowdhury et al.,
1985). This area has not been folded, but is broken into a number of fault blocks. A
series of six en-echelon faults is identified on the west, up thrown towards the east.

Figure: 2.3: Geologic and Tectonic setting of the Madhupur Tract (Khondaker,
1987).

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The Madhupur Tract is surrounded by some active tectonic unit viz. the Sylhet
Trough in the north and northeast and the Meghna fault zone in the east and southeast,
Dhaka depression on the south, and Jamuna graben in the west. Aerial photographs of
Morgan & Mcintire (1959) and Bakr (1977) have been shown evidences of uplift of
the Barind and Madhupur Tract areas have possibly been uplifted at the end of the
Pleistocene.

2.4: Stratigraphy
The study area is an integral part of the Madhupur Tract. Reddish brown Madhupur
Clay deposits which outcrop over the land surface of the Madhupur Tract is the oldest
exposed rock in the area except the swampy areas. It is unconformably underlain and
overlain by Dupi Tila Formation and alluvium respectively. The name “Madhupur
Clay” was introduced by F. H. Khan (1962) after Madhupur Garh in the district of
Tangail in Bangladesh.

Recently the Madhupur clay formation is named by Alam et.al (1990) as the
Madhupur clay residuum and by Monsur (1990) as the Madhupur clay and sand
formation. Alam and Khan (1980) subdivided the Madhupur clay into two lithologic
subunits –
A) The lower molted clay subunit and
B) The upper clay subunit.

Later Hasan (1986) subdivided the Madhupur clay into a) the Lower sand subunit of
channel deposits and b) the Upper clay subunit of feldspar deposits without a
lithostratigraphic succession. Monsur (1995) proposed a new approach to the
subdivision of Madhupur clay and its overlain deposits which is shown in table 2.1.

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Table 2.1: Stratigraphic Succession of Madhupur area (Monsur, 1995).

Chrono-

Formation

Thickness
Member
Stratigraphy

Bed

(m)
Lithologic Description
Series

series
Sub-

Clayey silt Silty clay

Atlantic
Sub-

Pale olive very sticky silty clay with modern

Matuail Clay
soil on top.
5
Light yellowish brown very sticky clayey
HOLOCENE

Basabo Silty-Clay
Boreal
Sub-

silt, containing plenty of plant roots and iron

concretions.
Atlantic Silty clay
Clayey Yellowish red silty clay.
Boreal

Gulshan Sand

Pale yellow clayey silt, containing wood

silt

It varies
fragments, plant roots, and iron concretions.

Light bluish gray sand –silt –clay to sand. It

Boreal

Sand
Pre-

contains roots, wood fragments and iron

concretions.
Pale yellowish brown with light brown
Kalsi Beds

Middle 1 spotted sandy clay (containing volcanic ash). 2

Yellowish brown very sticky silty clay,

2 concretions. 4
Madhupur Clay and Sand
PLEISTOCENE

Red with reddish yellow reduction spots. It is

Dhaka Clay

highly weathered and powdery. It contains

M2-1

iron concretions, pipe stems, calcareous

5
nodules, plant roots, mica and manganese
Lower

spot.

Light brown sandy clay to clayey sand with

Silty Clay
Mirpur

M2-2

moderate reddish brown spots containing

4
iron concretions, pipe stems, plant roots and
Mn- spots.
Pale yellow brown silty-sand. It is highly
Bhalukha

M2-3
Sand

micaceous and cross bedded, contains Mn

4
spots. Micas biotic and highly oxidized. It
contains some intraformational clay layers.

Quartz-chalcedony Gravel Bed

PLIOCENE

Dupi Tila

Oxidized sands with intraformational clay

beds. It contains large silicified woods.

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