Environmental Earth Sciences

, Volume 69, Issue 7, pp 2357–2364 | Cite as

Geochemical characteristics and depositional environment of Kalpakkam, southeast coast of India

  • K. Deepthi
  • Usha Natesan
  • A. L. Muthulakshmi
  • Vincent A. Ferrer
  • V. P. Venugopalan
  • S. V. Narasimhan
Original Article
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Sediments from Kalpakkam, southeast coast of India were geochemically analyzed to document the provenance, tectonic setting, and role of chemical weathering. The sediments are dominated by quartz (Si), and the higher concentration of Si suggests the presence of quartz (±feldspar) dominated terrigenous sands. The study demonstrates that the sediments are derived from the granitic to gneissic or from a sedimentary source. Beach sediments are deposited in a passive continental margin setting and seabed sediments are deposited in active continental margin. In the A–CN–K diagram, most of the samples fall in the lower part, i.e., below the plagioclase feldspar joint which indicates a low degree of alteration. Only S6 falls just above the plagioclase feldspar joint, close to the AK boundary suggesting a slightly advanced weathering of sediment and source. Beach and seabed sediments lie close to CNK and FM region suggesting the presence of ferromagnesian minerals (likely to be pyroxene) except S6 which falls in the inner triangle of the minerals feldspar, garnet, and biotite in A-CNK-FM diagram. Both CIA and CIW values depict the unweathered nature of the sediments under humid to semi-humid climatic conditions.

Keywords

Beach Chemical weathering Geochemistry Kalpakkam Provenance Seabed 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to the Board for Research in Nuclear Sciences, Mumbai, Government of India, for providing financial support (No. 2008/36/93-BRNS/2887 dated 27.02.2009) to carry out the research. The authors gratefully acknowledge Dr. S. Srinivasalu for facilitating the use of XRF instrument.

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  • K. Deepthi
    • 1
  • Usha Natesan
    • 1
  • A. L. Muthulakshmi
    • 1
  • Vincent A. Ferrer
    • 1
  • V. P. Venugopalan
    • 2
  • S. V. Narasimhan
    • 2
  1. 1.Centre for Water ResourcesAnna UniversityChennaiIndia
  2. 2.Biofouling and Biofilm Processes Section, Water and Steam Chemistry DivisionBhabha Atomic Research CentreKalpakkamIndia

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