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Abstract:
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The metals present in the surface sediments have high demand on a
global perspective, and the main reservoir of these elements is believed to be
the ocean floor. A lot of studies on metals are going on throughout the world
for its quantification and exploitation. Even though, some preliminary
attempts have been made in selected areas for the quantitative study of
metals in the western continental shelf of India, no comprehensive work has
been reported so far. The importance of this study also lies on the fact that
there has not been a proper evaluation of the impact of the Great Tsunami of
2004 on the coastal areas of the south India. In View of this, an attempt has
been made to address the seasonal distribution, behavior and mechanisms
which control the deposition of metals in the sediments of the western
continental shelf and Cochin Estuary, an annex to this coastal marine region.Surface sediment samples were collected seasonally from two
subenvironemnts of southwest coast of India, (continental shelf of Kerala and
Cochin estuarine system), to estimate the seasonal distribution and geochemical
behavior of non-transition, transition, rare-earth elements, Th and U. Bottom
water samples were also taken from each station, and analysed for temperature,
salinity and dissolved oxygen, hence the response of redox sensitive elements to
oxygen minimum zone can be addressed. In addition, other sedimentary
parameters such as sand, silt, clay fractions, CaCO3 and organic carbon content
were also estimated to evaluate the control factors on level of metals present in
the sediment. The study used different environmental data analysis techniques
to evaluate the distribution and behavior of elements during different seasons.
This includes environmental parameters such as elemental normalisation,
enrichment factor, element excess, cerium and europium anomalies and
authigenic uranium. |