Sedimentary Structures of Tidal Flats in Recent Chandipur East Coast of Odisha, India

Abstract

Sedimentary formations of diverse coastal tropical tidal flats on India’s east coast, including inner estuarine tidal point bars 30–50 km inland from the coastline, have been extensively studied under varying seasonal conditions. The current study intends to describe certain comparable physical structures that are present in both the inner estuary tidal point bars and the nearby coastal areas of Chandipur beach in Odisha. According to the findings, both habitats exhibit physical traits including flaser bedding, herringbone cross-bedding, lenticular bedding, and mud/silt couplets. In fact, during the monsoon season, the point bar facies have higher levels of flaser bedding and lenticular bedding than the coastal tidal flat habitats. Even though they are common in both environments, interference ripples exhibit a variety of architectural forms for different environmental domains. In the high-water zone, interference ripples are common on estuarine point bars, with succeeding sets that resemble wrinkle marks taking the place of the initial ripple form. When interpreting the paleoenvironments of Proterozoic rocks, take caution because the properties that have so far been identified as important structures for near-coastal tidal flats are analogous to both habitats. Despite their prevalence in both situations, interference ripples exhibit distinct architectural patterns in different environmental domains. Interference ripples with threadlike secondary set overriding the earlier ripple-form, like wrinkle marks, are distinguishing characteristics of estuarine point bars at high tide. When determining the paleoenvironment of Proterozoic rocks, one must depend only on physical sedimentary structures, because elements previously assumed to be key structures for near-coastal tidal flats are similar to both environments.