Textural characteristics of the Krishna River sediments, India

Abstract

To evaluate the magnitude of variation in grain size distribution in the Krishna river, bed sediments and suspended sediments collected along the length of the river have been studied. There are both temporal and seasonal variation in the grain size distribution of suspended sediments. The statistical parameters show the change along the river in a non-linear fashion which may be due to human interference and due to different types of sediments contributed by tributaries to the Krishna river. The suspended sediments are mostly fine silt (4 to 16μm), poorly sorted, showing coarse to fine skewed and are platyto leptokurtic. The bed sediments are mostly medium sand (350μm) showing moderate to well sorted, coarse to fine skewed and are platy- to leptokurtic. The CM diagram of Krishna river bed sediments suggests that deposition takes place by (1) rolling (2) rolling and suspension and (3) graded suspension. The suspended sediments represent deposits of uniform suspension.