Rate of Sedimentation in Veeranam Lake, South India, Using 137Cs and 210Pb

Abstract

In recent years there has been an increased interest in the dating of recent lake sediments, since its importance for the reconstruction of pollution history and other activities of man has been well demonstrated. This is imperative as there has not been any record on this aspect of research in Lake Veeranam. Hence, in the present study it is proposed to establish the rate of sedimentation and determination of sediment age. The present study gives special emphasize on understanding the rate of sedimentation in Veeranam Lake. The core sediment of 46cm has been collected from the lake using gravity corer were  sliced to 2cm and subjected to the analysis of ¹³⁷Cs and ²¹⁰Pb trends. The radio isotopic (¹³⁷Cs and ²¹⁰Pb) study reveals that the rate of sedimentation is 0.32 cm/year (²¹⁰Pb) and 0.35 cm/year (¹³⁷Cs) and the useful life of the lake may be of 965.71 years (¹³⁷Cs) or 1056.25 years (²¹⁰Pb) under normal environmental conditions.