Studies on Sediment Size Distribution of North Karnataka Beaches, West Coast of India, Using Empirical Orthogonal Function Analysis

Abstract

Empirical orthogonal function technique was applied to beach sediment samples collected during different phases (premonsoon, monsoon and postmonsoon of 1983). The study revealed that the first phi dependent eigen function accounted for largest variation in the data set. This showed significant differences in the concentration of grain size across the beach covering high, mid and low tide strands during different seasons, i.e. dominance of relatively finer sediments during premonsoon season, coarser sediments during monsoon and less coarser sediments during postmonsoon season.