Influence of tidal cycle on heavy minerals variation in the Kottilpadu beach, Kanyakumari coast, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

The present study is focused on the influence of tidal cycle on heavy minerals variation in the beaches at Kottilpadu coast of Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu. The study area is enriched with a variety of heavy minerals, most commonly with ilmenite, along with monazite, rutile, zircon, garnet etc. These placer deposits often vary in distribution due to the effect of tides as well as waves. 5 sampling stations were selected to represent the beach and daily monitoring was ca rried out during high and low tide levels. Moreover, wave parameters such as wave height, wave period, littoral drift and wave direction are also taken into consideration. Further, the sediment samples were analyzed for size fraction and mineral compositio n. The beach morphology was assessed based on beach profile data. The results reveal that high percentage of heavy minerals is noticed at high tide and low percentage at low tide. Exceptions are noticed in few samples which may be due to varied hydrodynamic conditions prevails in the study area. In all samples more than 40% constitute opaques followed by sillimanite <25% and other constitute rest of the percentage. From the XRD analysis, the peak positions shown by diffractogram is ilmenite (FeTiO 3) pyrope and pseudorutile (Fe 2Ti 3O9), sillimanite (AlFeO 2.SiO 5), zircon (ZrSiO 4) and rutile (TiO 2). X-ray fluorescence analytical results also reflect what was inferred from XRD and point counting data. The heavy mineral assemblage of the beach sediment indicates the possibility of mineral supply from alongshore and offshore sources. A B S T R A C T A R T I C L E I N F O