Geochemistry of the Continental Margin Sediments of the Central West Coast of India

The modern sediments accumulating on the western continental margin of India between 17° and 13° latitude are composed predominantly of terrigenous material in the inner shelf with moderate organic carbon content (< 3%), carbonate sediments in the outer shelf with low organic carbon content (< 1%) and organic carbon rich (upto 12%) carbonate sediments in the slope region. The bulk and partition geochemistry of the surface sediments reflect the complex intermixture of several sedimentary components (lithogenic, authigenic and biogenic) and enable the identification of geochemical processes that are responsible for the incorporation of elements into the sediments. The elemental concentrations are found to be related to the distribution of three major components i.e, terrigenous debris (Si, Al,Ti, Fe, Mn, Cu), authigenic Calcium Carbonate (Sr, P) and organic carbon (P, Ni, Zn).