Seasonal Variations in Sedimentological Characteristics of Uppanar River Estuary, South East Coast of India

Abstract

The estuaine environment are dynamic and they are  the intermediate zone between the marine and fresh water regions.  This makes the estuarine  region  more dynamic  in physical and chemical characteristic. These regions serves as a passage for  the continental  materials reach the marine environment.  Because of the influence of fresh water and marine water this regions the depositional systems are dynamic and complex in nature. Despite the complexity of the of the environment, the textural analsysis and interpretation of the same provides insight into the prevailing deposition environment.  The present study are carried out in the Uppar Estuary which joins with Bay of Bengal on the east coast of India. The Sedimentological analysis indicates that sediments  most of the locations the sediments are very poorly to well sorted  with mean size ranging from 1.03 to 5.97φ. The skewness value  ranged from  -0.09 to 0.48. The kurtosis varies form 0.94 to 1.54 The seasonal variations  within the station are conspicuous. This indicates the sediment distribution pattern in controlled by the  marine  as well monsoon rainfall  in this region.