XRD Analysis in Gundar River Estuary and Beach Sediments of Mookaiyur Area, Ramanathapuram District, South India

Abstract

Quantitative analysis was carried out to determine the major and minor constituent minerals present in sediment samples collected at the coastal region between in Mandapam and Vembar, Gulf of Mannar coast, South India by XRD technique. The grain-size distributions of sediments are studied in the study of grain size in relation to mechanism of sediments deposition. The composition of the coastal sediment is dominated by medium to fine sand. The distribution pattern and textural parameters of sediments vary regionally in the Ramanathapuram coastal sediment distribution. Based on the texture of sediments it can be said that the beach consists of medium to fine sand was domains. Sedimentological studies reveal that depositional patterns in the beach are mostly controlled by fluvial and marine processes. The deposition of medium to fine sands in the extreme in our study area attributed to the discharge Vembar and Gundar Rivers. Further, the representative sediment samples were analyzed by XRD technique to yield more information about the minerals. X-ray diffraction methods were non-destructive and can be used in the identification of mineralogical composition. These results confirmed that the applied techniques are relatively quicker and more reliable in mineral analysis. The X-Ray diffraction sediments sample analysis proved that the minerals of calcite, quartz, orthoclase, microcline, biotite, hypersthene, hornblende, albite, anorthite sepiolite, illite, chlorite, halloysite Montmorillonite, halite and heavy mineral garnet, zircon, sillimanite, topaz, cobaltite, kyanite, magnetite, hornblende and ilmenite. The followed by minerals are derived from Recent Alluvium and Southern Granulite Terrain in India.