The main objectives of the OASTC are related to:

• Understand the Late Quaternary paleoenvironmental changes on the continental shelf and slope regions.
• Investigate the provenance, pathways, transport trends and accumulation rates of sediments on the western continental margin.
• Study of geochemistry of major and trace elemental concentration in the sediments to understand the depositional processes and short & long-term effects of elemental pollution in the marine environment.
• Understand climatic signatures by proxy climatic records.
• Reconstruct paleoclimatic changes.
• Make an attempt to predict future climatic changes based on periodicity of paleoclimatic events.

 Approach

• Collection of undisturbed sediment cores from different water depths in the southwestern continental margin of Arabian Sea.
• Determination of textural parameters.
• Identification of clay minerals and semi-quantification using X-Ray Diffractometer.
• Identification and quantification of heavy and light minerals using XRD and conventional methods.
• Estimation of major and trace elemental concentrations in the core samples.
• Estimation of organic matter, CaCO3 content, C/N ratios, crystallanity of clay minerals and other climate sensitive parameters.
• Radiocarbon dating of marker sediment layers for chronological control.

 Outcome

The proposed multidisciplinary approach is likely to provide answers to paleoclimate including paleomonsoon, paleoweathering conditions, environment of deposition, provenance and sea-level fluctuations of the hinterland and offshore region of a part of southwest coast of India.