Composition of beach materials along the coastline of India

Abstract

A long stretch of about 8129 Km length of Indian coastline registers various deposi- tional environm ents particularly in the intertidal zone of sea beaches. There are innu­ merable sea beaches in the peninsular Indian sub-continent. Sea beaches of Indian coast experience the regular effects of waves and tidal currents. Texturally the beach sedim ents are sandy in nature. Surface physical structures are rare in the intertidal zones of these sea beaches. Under this situation, composition of beach m aterials in­ cluding lithogenic and biogenic constituents and their distributions would be the unique m eans for the interpretation of the beach characteristics along w ith related beach processes.So, therefore sedim ents from a few selected beaches along the Indian coasts nam ely G angasagar, F rasergunj-B akkhali, C handrabhaga, P uri, V isakhapatnam , Chennai, Kovalam, Kasaragod and Mumbai for grain size analysis and micro-paleon- tological studies.