The coastal region around Sri Lanka have been subjected to considerable changes since Pleistocene and one remarkable observation is the occurrence of submarine canyons in eight places of the Island. The literature say...The coastal region around Sri Lanka have been subjected to considerable changes since Pleistocene and one remarkable observation is the occurrence of submarine canyons in eight places of the Island. The literature says that the head of the largest canyon at Trincomalee is situated 200 m from the shore. The objective of this paper is to highlight the extension of the canyon structure by studying the recent geotechnical investigations around the Mahaweli delta. A number of boreholes were constructed for groundwater investigations around the Mahaweli river floodplains and the other boreholes were constructed to determine the depth to the bedrock for a bridge foundation at the river outfall. The depth to the bedrock at the river outfall is more than 75 m and decreases towards upstream. The shape of the bedrock below the thick fluvial sediments in the studied area indicates the head of canyon should be marked more than 35 km from the shore towards inland. It is obvious that the submarine canyon at Trincomalee is only a part of a very large canyon. The thick fluvial sedimentary deposit over this canyon within the land is a result of erosion of bedrock along a shear zone or fault and then the rise of sea level in recent times.展开更多
文摘The coastal region around Sri Lanka have been subjected to considerable changes since Pleistocene and one remarkable observation is the occurrence of submarine canyons in eight places of the Island. The literature says that the head of the largest canyon at Trincomalee is situated 200 m from the shore. The objective of this paper is to highlight the extension of the canyon structure by studying the recent geotechnical investigations around the Mahaweli delta. A number of boreholes were constructed for groundwater investigations around the Mahaweli river floodplains and the other boreholes were constructed to determine the depth to the bedrock for a bridge foundation at the river outfall. The depth to the bedrock at the river outfall is more than 75 m and decreases towards upstream. The shape of the bedrock below the thick fluvial sediments in the studied area indicates the head of canyon should be marked more than 35 km from the shore towards inland. It is obvious that the submarine canyon at Trincomalee is only a part of a very large canyon. The thick fluvial sedimentary deposit over this canyon within the land is a result of erosion of bedrock along a shear zone or fault and then the rise of sea level in recent times.
