Abstract

The present study deals with the hydro-geochemical and trace metal analysis of coastal springs of Varkala cliff, Kerala, South India. Varkala beach (Papanasam Beach) is one of the most popular tourism destinations in Kerala. The cliff section at Varkala consisting of clay, lignite band, sandy-clay, sandstone of Mio-Pliocene age. The coastal springs emerge from the contact between sandstone and underlying carbonaceous clay stone of the Warkalli formation of Mio-Pliocene age exposed on the uplifted block south of the Achan kovil shear zone. Spring water samples collected from five different regions of the study area during pre and post monsoon season. The pH is considerably low in all samples (4 - 4.64). The sediments and the percolating spring water have some sort of pungent odor of sulphur and these reason leads to spring water shows the sulphide content but not exceed the standard value. The rare earth metals show different concentrations in water samples under study. According to heavy metals analysis, all samples comparatively low heavy metal concentrations. The exceptions were Al, Fe, Ba and Mn were present in high concentrations in some of the samples than other analyzed heavy metals.