Abstract
Flow velocity required for erosion of soft-sediment like mud is somewhat of the same order of magnitude as required to erode gravels because of the cohesiveness of mud. Tajpur beach, extreme south of West Bengal experiences erosion of muddy sediments and the outcome is mud balls, a rounded sedimentary structure, consisting of clay material. Desiccation cracks, bioturbation structures with low energetic waves are the root causes for the formation of mud balls. A detailed analysis shows that dimension of the mud balls has no control over their orientation. A trend in-between the transport distance and shape is found like that mud balls are deformed into rod like shapes as they cover longer distance from the source. Break up of cohesive soft-sediment provides fine sediment into the sand dominating environment, but attention needs in terms of management and protection of this sedimentary environment owing to coastal erosion.
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Acknowledgement
We would like to thank Mr. Jyotirmoy Biswas, Department of Geography, Jadavpur University for helping during intensive field investigation.
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Arijit Majumder, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Jadavpur University conceived the present idea of armoured mud ball and nvestigated. Dr. Majumder developed the proper methodology to identify how each and every mud ball has a difference in its shape, size and orientation and also supervised the whole work.
Dibyajyoti Das, student of Department of Geography, Jadavpur University carried out the field work and collected the primary data following the developed methodology. Dibyajyoti Das also designed the whole framework, analysed and interpreted the data, prepared the maps and diagrams and wrote the manuscript with support from Dr. Majumder.
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Das, D., Majumder, A. A Comprehensive Study of the Armoured Mud Balls of Tajpur Coast, India. J Geol Soc India 99, 1408–1416 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12594-023-2487-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12594-023-2487-6