Sediment and organic carbon distributions in the Cochin harbour area

Abstract

Mud and sandy mud are spread over most part of the study area with patches of muddy sand and silty sand. Sand and sand rich sediments predominate in the estuarine mouth compared to the muddy sediments in the Ernakulam(EKM) and Mattancherry (MC) channels. The sediments in general are very poorly sorted, negatively to very positively skewed and very platy to very leptokurtic in nature. The organic carbon content varied from 0.24 to 6.15%. A comparative evaluation of the organic carbon contents showed a substantial increase during the last two decades.