Planimetric Response of the Kerala Shoreline to the Monsoon of 1979

Beach profiles were surveyed twice in the year 1979, along transects placed approximately 10 km apart on the Laccadive sea shoreline, from Kanyakumari (Tamil Nadu) to Thalappadi (Kerala) - a distance of about 650km. Profile changes are analysed in the light of geomorphology, shelf width and gradient, wind data and ship-reported wave data. Cumulative and catastrophic shift of beach sediment during the sw monsoon of 1979 has been calculated. An apparent dichotomy exists between the beaches of northern Kerala (Malabar) and southern and central Kerala in that the beaches of Malabar are less severely eroded than those of Southern and Central Kerala.