Geotechnical Aspects of Clayey Sediments Off Badagara on the Kerala Coast,India

Offshore geotechnical surveys form part of an integrated investigation to rejuvenate a decrepit minor port at Badagara, Kerala on the southwestern coast of India. The sediments typify a fluvio-marine milieu ranging from silty clay, sand, silty sand, sandy silt and clayey silt. Geotechnical and sedimentological studies of shallow cores reveal the geotechnical aspects besides the depositional history of the sediments. Downcore geotechnical variations and regressive coefficients based on their inter-relationships highlight diverse factorial inferences. X-Ray Diffraction data indicate the prominent clay type.

A comparative evaluation of the geotechnical characteristics of clayey sediments off Badagara, with similar studies along various sectors of the Kerala coast, both on land as well as in the near shore, is broadly attempted. Geotechnical studies carried out earlier on the uplifted Cochin marine clays provide comparative data for evaluating the possible variations between present day marine clayey sediments occurring along the Kerala coast and uplifted marine clays which, besides their gross variations in levels with respect to the present sea-level, also obviously relate to a much older depositional environment and provenance during probable Holocene times.