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Sedimentary Core Analysis: Implications on the Evolution of Pulicat Lake,

East Coast of India

Article  in  Journal of the Geological Society of India · August 2015

DOI: 10.1007/s12594-015-0298-0

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 JOURNAL GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF INDIA
Vol.86, August 2015, pp.191-194

Sedimentary Core Analysis: Implications on the Evolution

of Pulicat Lake, East Coast of India

B. C. SUNDARA RAJA REDDY1*, N. JAYARAJU2, K. R. REDDY1, G. SREENIVASULU2,

and A. N. REDDY3
1
Department of Geology, S.V. University, Tirupati - 517 502, India
2
Department of Geology, Yogi Vemana University, Kadapa - 516 003, India
3
OIDB Chair, Institute of Remote Sensing, Anna University, Chennai - 600 025, India
*
Email: sundherbc@rediffmail.com

Abstract: A shallow sedimentary core (PL-1) of 12.5m length was analyzed for lithological, paleontological and
radiocarbon dating. The core shows fairly uniform lithological (sandy) composition and foraminifera. The marine
molluskan shells at 12m depth provide 3660±80 yr BP age by 14C isotope dating. This age in correlation with timing of
mid-late Holocene sea levels, facilitates to infer that the Pulicat lake has emerged during 2nd high stand sea level (4330±2500
cal years BP) in late Holocene.

Keywords: Sedimentary core, evolution, 14C isotope, Pulicat lake.

INTRODUCTION changes to understand the evolution of the Pulicat lake. Vaz

Pulicat lake is the second largest brackish water
ecosystem on the east coast of India, about 60 km north of
Chennai city. The lake is trending parallel to the sea coast in
north-south axis. The lake has a length of 60 km and breadth
of 0.2 to 17.5 km. It has a high water spread of 460 sq.km
and low water coverage area of 250 sq.km. The Pulicat lake
is shallow with an average water depth of one meter and
connected with an estuary mouth with a width of 200 meters.
The lake is drained by three larger inflows and many minor
inflows. The study area, is located in the Survey of India
toposheets nos.: 66 B/2, 66 B/3, 66 C/2 respectively at the
scale of 1: 50,000. The study area lies between longitudes
80o02' - 80o20' E and latitudes 13o22'-13o45' N (Fig.1). The
lake floor generally deepens towards the coast and water
depths are usually shallow up to a maximum of 4m. The
present day sedimentation is characterized by dominantly
terrigenous sediments because marine influence from the
Bay of Bengal is limited. These fluctuations are often
recorded at various levels in the sediment column as distinct
changes in terrigenous sediment supply and biological
productivity (Narashimna Rao, 1971). The study of these
changes, together with down core distribution of
stratigraphic biomarkers (fossils) can provide some insight
into the chronology of changes in sediment fluxes and
sedimentation rates which can be related to relative sea level
and Banerji (1997) have observed that the sedimentation
rate is 2.5mm/a in the eastern margin of the lake.
Several sedimentological, geochemical and micro-
paleontological studies of bottom sediments of the Pulicat
lake have already been carried out (Narashimna Rao, 1971;
Doraswamy Naidu. 1974 ; Nallappa Reddy, 1981; Jayaraju
et al. 1999 , Sundara Raja Reddy et al. 2012).
The aim of the present study is to highlight the paleo-
environment for the precise understanding of the evolution
of the Pulicat lake.
METHODOLOGY
A boat mounted with shallow drilling rig was employed
for coring the lake bed. Navigation and postion fixing were
done by using prismatic compass backbreaking from the
boat to the shore stations (Vas and Banerjee, 1997). The
coring site (Latitude 13.31243 E, longitude 80.14134 N,
water depth was 2 meters) is close to the deeper part of the
lake (Fig.1). Here the core spans the entire sedimentary strata
as the lateritic soil forms the basement of the lake at 12.5m
depth. The core was slabbed into two halves. One half was
wrapped in aluminum foil and preserved for future studies.
Core logging was carried out on the second half, to record
lithologic profile, macrofossils, and bioturbation features.

0016-7622/2015-86-2-191/$ 1.00 © GEOL. SOC. INDIA

192 B.C. SUNDARA RAJA REDDY AND OTHERS
.
. Core Collection Point
Fig.1. Location of the core collected and results from core PL-1 (core depth, late Holocene sea level curve, lithocolumn, mollusc shells,
radiocarbon dates/remarks.
Subsequently, core was sub-sampled at every 20cm and
processed for analyzing foraminiferal remains by adopting
standard techniques (Jayaraju et al. 1999) The molluskan
shells found at 12m and 1m depth intervals were subjected
for 14C isotope dating ( Physical Research Laboratory (PRL),
Ahmadabad. Sample No.prl-3302 (s.s. no.1) and Sample
No.prl.3303 (s.s. No.2)
RESULTS
Figure 1 shows the analyses of sediments studied at every
20cm interval. The core shows fairly uniform litholgical
composition. It is predominantly sandy with few intervals
(0.8-1.3m; 6.3-6.5m; 11.0-11.5m) consisting of minor clay.
Foraminifera are sparse and distributed randomly in upcore
. Pachkhande et al (2014) have noticed that the foraminifera
on the west coast cores do show random distribution towards
the top. However molluskan shells are well preserved at
12m and 1m depths.
DISCUSSION
Core study revealed that the lithological composition
(mainly sand) is more uniform in upcore and devoid of any
decisive physical and bioturbation features. The core
sediments did not yield any age diagnostic foraminifera but
a few small benthic foraminifera found occurring in upcore
at few intervals. However, well preserved molluskan shells
found to occur at 12m and 01m depths in core PL-1.
Relative Sea Level Changes
Holocene sea level changes documented by Woodroff
and Horton (2005) reveals broad similarity in all the
locations in the Indo-Pacific region. However, these authors
believe that differences do exist, in the timing and magnitude
of the Mid-Holocene High Stand (MHHS) and the nature
of late Holocene sea level fall across the region. This is
probably due to lack of consistent methodology throughout
the Indo-Pacific for the analysis of sea level change. When
the Indo-Pacific is subdivided into smaller regions, these
discrepancies do not disappear, and in some cases the
discrepancies are large within a single coastline (Woodroff
and Horton, 2005; Lambeck and Nakada, 1990).
Vaz and Banerjee (1997) constructed mid-late Holocene
sea level changes in and around the Pulicat lagoon and
documented its evolution in 5 stages. The northern and
western parts of the lagoonal area was mainly a marsh in
the initial stage of evolution at about 5000yr BP, consisting
JOUR.GEOL.SOC.INDIA, VOL.86, AUG. 2015
 SEDIMENTARY CORE ANALYSIS: IMPLICATIONS ON THE EVOLUTION OF PULICAT LAKE
mainly finer clastics with peat layers. The second stage at
about 3100yr BP experienced major marine flooding due to
relative sea level rise. This sea level rise probably led to the
maximum spread of marine water thus initiating the existence
of southern part of the lagoon. The sediment core of the
present study is located in the southern part of the lagoon.
The lithology of the core reveals the presence of coarse
clastics in the entire sediment column, indicating higher rate
of sedimentation.
Banerjee (2000) reconstructed mid-late Holocene sea
level changes for the east coast of India using radiocarbon
and uranium series methods by dating beach ridges, Porites
coral colony and intertidal shells at 5 locations in Gulf of
Mannar of south Tamil Nadu coast. He recognized 1st
highstand of sea level at 7300±5660 cal years BP and 2nd
highstand at 4330±2500 cal years BP. Katupotha and
Fujiwara (1988) used radiocarbon dating of corals and
marine shells at 4 locations along Sri Lankan coast and
recognized 1st highstand sea level at 6485±5370 cal years
BP and 2nd HS at 2902±1558 cal years BP in mid-Holocene.
Ramsay (1995) produced a 9000 year record showing early
Holocene RSL rise to a Mid-Holocene high stand of +3.5 m
at 4650 14C yrs BP with RSL subsequently falling below
present levels, but also shows a secondary high stand at 1610
14
C yrs BP (+1.5 m) before mean sea level is attained at
900 14C yrs BP. The sea-level observations are taken from a
180 km long stretch of coastline in eastern South Africa,
thus reflecting regional RSL influences. It may be observed
here that Holocene sealvel changes of the South African
and Sri Lankan coasts shows close similarity. Pluet and
Pirazzoli (1991) reconstructed sea level changes during
Holocene for both stable and delta regions throughout
the world. The world atlas of Holocene sea level changes
(Pluet and Pirazzoli, 1991) indicates that sea level highstand
around 1200 years and since gradual transgression
which led to attain present mean sea levels around 900 years
ago.
Since the Pulicat lake lies on the south east coast of India
and in close geographic enclosure with south Tamilnadu
coast, it is prudent to extrapolate mid-late Holocene sea level
changes as observed by Banerjee (2000) in Gulf of Mannar
to the present study area. The age dates of 3660±80years at
12m in the present core PL-1, correlates well with 2nd
References
BANJEREE, P.K. ( 2000) Holocene and Late Pleistocene relative
sea level fluctuations along the east coast of India. Marine
Geol., v.167, pp.243-260.
DORASWAMYNAIDU, E (1974) Geochemistry and Sedimnatlogy of
the Dugarajapatnam estuary and Tidal flat, Andhra Pradesh,
JOUR.GEOL.SOC.INDIA, VOL.86, AUG. 2015
193
highstand of sea level of Banerjee (2000), that inferred to
occur between 4330 and 2500 cal years BP. The age of
700±100 cal years BP at 1m depth closely agrees with the
inference of Pluet and Pirazzaoli (1991) that mean sea level
of present oceans attained about 900 cal years BP. The
homogenous lithology (sandy) throughout the core also
reveals prevalence of paleo-water depth profile analogous
with present bathymetry in the Pulicat lake.
The paleoenvironmental evolution of Pulicat lake has
been a riddle to comprhend in the absence of well preserved
index microfossils. The lack of good preservation of
microfossils can be attributed to (1) sandy lithology and
(2) heavy influx of Kalangi river waters during past
monsoons resulting in low pH, low salinity of bottom waters.
However, well preserved molluskan shells at some depths
were useful for 14C isotope dating. The age date of 3660±80
yr BP at 12m core depth, just about 0.5 m above the technical
basement (laterite) of the lake correlates well within the
window of 2nd HS at 4330±2500yr BP (Banerjee, 2000)
and 2nd stage evolution of the Pulicat lagoon as constructed
by (Vaz and Banerjee, 1997).These inferences help to
conclude that the Pulicat lake has emerged during 2nd high
stand sea level in late Holocene.
CONCLUSIONS
The 14C isotope dating of molluskan shells in a
sedimentary core (PL-1) at 12m depth just above the laterite
basement of Pulicat lake gives an age of 3660±80 cal yrs
BP. This age estimate correlates well with 2nd high stand of
sea level of Banerjee (2000) and 2nd stage evolution of the
Pulicat lagoon (Vaz and Banerjee, 1997), that inferred to
occur between 4330 and 2500 cal years BP, and helps to
conclude that the Pulicat lake has emerged during 2nd HS in
late Holocene.
Acknowledgement: The author (BCSR) thanks DST
(Department of Science and Technology) New Delhi for the
financial support in the form of Project (SR/FTP/ES-59/
2009). We are thankful to Dr. Kanchan Pande, IIT Bombay
and Dr. J.S. Ray, PRL, Ahmedabad for their help. The
authors thankful to an anonymous reviewer for his critical
review to improve the quality of the paper.
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