Texture and mineralogical composition of sediments along Ganjam coast, east coast of India

Abstract

Foreshore as well as backshore sediment samples were collected from four stations and subsequently analysed for their texture and mineral composition viz. percentage of silicate, magnetite and calcareous materials. The sediments of the beach are predominantly in medium class (75.92%) and fine sand class (20.37%), moderately sorted (85.19%) to well sorted, symmetrical to positively skewed (50%), platykurtic (40.74%) to mesokurtic (37.04%). Quartz and feldspars are dominant minerals along with sillimanite, rutile, ilmenite and zircon. Result of R-mode factor analysis reveals that carbonates are concentrated in the coarser size fractions (< 0.5 phi and 0.5 to 1.0 phi), whereas magnetites are concentrated in finer size fractions (2.0 - 2.5 phi, 2.5 - 3.0 phi & 3.0 - 3.5 phi).