Grain Size Trend and Hydrodynamic Condition of
Tirumalairajan River Estuary, East Coast of India¹

S. Venkatramanan^{a, b}, S. Y. Chung^a, *, T. Ramkumar^b, and N. Park^c

^a Institute of Environmental Geosciences, Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, Pukyong National University,
599-1 Daeyeon-dong Nam-gu, Busan, 608-737 Republic of Korea

^b Department of Earth Sciences, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar, Tamilnadu, 608002 India

^c Department of Civil Engineering, Dong-A University, 840 Hadan-dong Saha-gu, Busan, 604-717 Republic of Korea

*e-mail: chungsy@pknu.ac.kr

Received May 5, 2012; in final form, March 8, 2014

Abstract—The estuary can be considered as environments characterized by high productivity and un-com-
mensurable ecological value. However, marine ecosystems are also subjected to high human pressures that
increase their vulnerability. The aim of this work is to analyze grain size trend of sediment due to the action
of the main hydrodynamic condition. The spatial distribution patterns of sediments were monitored accord-
ing to season. The grain-size trend of surficial sediments revealed a dominant sediment transport trend
towards the eastern and south eastern part of study area. This study shows that there is an agreement among
sediments path ways, hydrodynamic condition and the sediment spatial distribution in the estuarine environ-
ment. The agitation by waves is an important sorting mechanism in the study area. The findings are based on
the grain size trend and also corroborated by short term observations of the estuarine sediment dynamics and
transport during the monsoon, postmonsoon, summer and premonson seasons in Tirumalairajan River estu-
ary.

DOI: 10.1134/S0001437014040134

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