A Mid Holocene Strandline Deposit on the Inner Shelf of Cochin, West Coast of India

Beach sediments with a phi mean size varying from 1.07 to 2.9 are well to moderately sorted and to a great extent negatively skewed. On the inner shelf, the sediments exhibit a wide range (0.9φ and 10φ) in mean grain-size. While most of the inner shelf is covered with fine silts and clays, sandy sediments occupy a linear belt in the outer parts (-25 to -30 m) of the shelf. These moderately sorted sands are considered to be relict and deposited during a standstill of the Holocene transgression. The CM pattern suggests that the sandy sediments in the inner shelf like the beach sands were deposited under high energy conditions. The well-preserved sands indicate that the existing hydrodynamic conditions on the inner shelf are neither strong enough to rework the sediments nor transport the modern river-contributed fine sediments to the outer parts.