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Geochemical and Sedimentological Signatures of Ariyankuppam and Chunnambar Estuarine Sediments, Pondicherry, India: Implications on Weathering and Provenance

  • Original Article
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Journal of the Geological Society of India

Abstract

Thirty surface sediment samples collected from Ariyankuppam (N =12) and Chunnambar estuaries (N = 18) located along the coast of Pondicherry, India, are analyzed to understand the nature of weathering and provenance. The granulometric study reveals that sediments are poorly sorted, positively skewed and platykurtic to leptokurtic in nature. The abundance and inverse relationship of SiO2 with other major oxides signify the detention of silica within quartz. The Index of Chemical Variability (ICV) suggests that sediments are compositionally immature and are derived from less weathered source rock. The weathering indices such as the Chemical Index of Alteration (CIA); Chemical Index of Weathering (CIW); Plagioclase Index of Alteration (PIA), and A-CN-K diagram also suggest less intense weathering of parent rocks. The major and trace element ratios viz. Al2O3/TiO2, TiO2/Zr, Cr/V and Y/Ni and discrimination diagrams indicate that estuarine sediment is derived from felsic and intermediate provenance.

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Acknowledgement

We sincerely thank the Department of Earth Sciences and Central Instrumentation Facility of Pondicherry University for providing the necessary facilities for the entire work. And we extend our sincere thanks to the editor and anonymous reviewer for their cherished suggestions for bringing this research paper to the current level. The corresponding author also thanks CSIR-HRDG for his Research Associate fellowship vide F.No. 09/0559(12548)/2021-EMR-I

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Central Instrumentation Facility, Pondicherry University, Puducherry, 605 014, India

    N. Kirubakaran

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, Pondicherry University, Puducherry, 605 014, India

    M. Sridharan, D. Senthil Nathan & S. Harikrishnan

  3. Department of Radioecology and Fukushima Project, National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology (QST), Chiba, Japan

    M. Rajamanickam

  4. Department of Geology, V.O. Chidambaram College, Thoothukudi, 628 008, India

    M. Rajamanickam

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Correspondence to M. Sridharan.

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N. Kirubakaran, the first author of the manuscript is currently working as a lab assistant at the Central Instrumentation Facility (CIF) at Pondicherry University. He is actively involved in sample collection, Data curation, formal analysis and writing–original draft

Dr. M. Sridharan (Corresponding Author) is working as CSIR-Research Associate in the Department of Earth Sciences, Pondicherry University. His contributions for this research article are conceptualization, sample collection, data curation, formal analysis, interpretation, writing and editing–original draft.

Prof. D. Senthil Nathan Senior Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, Pondicherry University played a vital role in data curation, validation, and framing methodology. He also provided necessary resources for the study and supervised the work.

S. Harikrishnan is currently working as research scholar in the Department of Earth Sciences, Pondicherry University. He is involved in the analysis, review and editing.

Dr. M. Rajamanickam is working as Assistant Professor, V.O. Chidambaram College, Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu. He earlier worked as Senior Researcher at the Department of Radioecology and Fukushima Project, National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology (QST), Chiba, Japan. He played vital role in interpreting, writing, reviewing and editing.

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Kirubakaran, N., Sridharan, M., Senthil Nathan, D. et al. Geochemical and Sedimentological Signatures of Ariyankuppam and Chunnambar Estuarine Sediments, Pondicherry, India: Implications on Weathering and Provenance. J Geol Soc India 99, 1275–1284 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12594-023-2461-3

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