Sedimentary Structures and Texture of the Warkalli Sandstone (Mio-Pliocene) at Cherunniyoor, Kerala

The Quarry at Cherunniyoor, 3 km east of the Varkala town exposes a section of Warkalli beds of Mio-Pliocence age. The Sedimentary structures like channel fills, cross bedding, lenticular bedding, convolute lamination, clay galls, water escape structure and trace fossils are noticed in the section. The Warkalli sandstone at Cherunniyoor is composed mainly of coarse to medium grained, poorly to moderately sorted, angular to subangular grains with platy-to-mcso-kurtosis and nearly symmetrical skewness. The sedimentary structures together with the textural characteristics as well as the fining upward nature of lithological units point to a fluvial (meandering river) origin for the sandstone and hence for the Warkalli beds at Cherunniyoor.