Studies on the significance of Grain Size Distribution in the Coastal Sedimentary Environments

Abstract

An attempt has been made to study the influence of grain sizes and their distribution on the sediment deposits in the coastal environment by evaluating the statistical parameters of the grain size distribution of beach sands of some parts of east coast of Tamil Nadu, India. The beach sands were collected from Chennai coast to Puducherry coast, over a distance of about 155 km. Sand samples were collected along this stretch in selected 10 locations at Backshore, Berm and Foreshore. The low and high energy environment were identified by mean, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis using the Folk and Ward (1957) equations. Bivariate plots were used to understand the sub environment characteristics. Fine sands are dominant in the east coast of Tamil Nadu. The wave energy and wind action also influence the sediment deposits in the beach. The influence of wind and wave action in the sedimentary environments is evident from the poorly sorted sediments in the studied locations.