MINERAL COMPOSITION OF MACROTERMES BELLICASUS FROM TERMITARIA WITHIN AKWA IBOM STATE UNIVERSITY, IKOT AKPADEN CAMPUS NIGERIA

ABSTRACT Shelter comes to mind for staying alive. However the well-decorated buildings lose their beauty when termites feed on the wood members of the house. While they destroy the wood members of our shelters, they contribute also to human developments. Termites while transporting the inorganic and organic matters into their shelter, the nest in the termitaria, enriched the surrounding soils. Furthermore, the burrowing activities into the subsoils contribute to the development of soil profiles which help in agricultural production. The economic importance of termites extends to mineral exploration, particularly in regolith-dominated terrain, where mineral deposit haloes have been masked by exotic and redistributed weathered materials. Termitaria formed from deep-seated burrowed subsoil materials were able to show the real geochemical anomalies in such complex terrains.