Beach Rocks from the South East Coast of Tamilnadu, India: A Spectroscopic Study

Beach rock has only rarely been observed in the coasts. It is a hard costal sedimentary formations consisting of various beach sediments, lithified through the precipitation of carbonate cements. One such formation is noted on the South East Coast of Tamilnadu, India. The objective of this contribution is to collect and review information on reported occurrences, characteristics and formation mechanism of beach rocks and applying the spectroscopic techniques for beach rock formation and evolution. The FT-IR and XRD technique is used to identify the constituent of minerals and cementing materials of the beach rocks. The instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) is used to determine the elemental geochemistry of the beach rocks. Results are discussed and the conclusions are drawn. The combined spectroscopic techniques are used to throw light on the nature and cause of cementation.