Texture, mineralogy and elemental composition of sediments along the southeast coast of India

Abstract

Bed sediments collected from southeast coast of india are studied for texture, mineralogy and elemental composition. There is no systematic variation in the mean size. Sediments are moderately well sorted and slightly fine skewed. Kurtosis value of 1.2 shows the intense sorting of the central part of the size distribution curve. Clay population is less and sediments are essentially made up of detritals. Different grain size fractions show variable heavy metal (Fe, Mn, Cr, Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd and Hg) concentrations. Coarse grained sediments contain lesser heavy metal concentration. River mouths are characterized by elevated heavy metal concentration and generally concentration levels decrease towards the coast from the land. Heavy metals in the study area seem to have definite variation in the chemistry in relation to changes in the textural and mineralogical characteristics of the sediments.