Photo-Geomorphologic Study of Representative Islands of Lakshadweep

The Lakshadweep group of islands is scattered in the Arabian Sea about 200 to 400 km off the west coast of Kerala. The general topography of islands is hummocky to flat with steeper shore on the east. The coralline islands are fringed by beach material all around the island. They are largely composed of course sand, disintegrated corals, shell fragments and uncemented pebbles, shingles, cobbles and boulders. The western side of most of the islands are fringed by coralline reef enclosing the lagoon. The erosion is more pronounced towards the eastern side. In case of Kavaratti island, the sediment concen-tration is more towards the northeast and southwest part of the lagoon. The average width of the reef is about 200-300 m. The uppermost part of the reef is punctured by-spurs, grooves and scour channels and they are basically erosive in origin. The direction of spurs and grooves suggest paleo-winds and currents from southeastern direction. Two to three submarine terraces were mapped from the aerial photographs. These might have been formed due to eustatic changes of the sea level