Geomorphology and Mineral Analysis of Teluk Lipat Beach: Monsoonal Effect to the Open Coastal System

Abstract

The northeast monsoon brings a significant physical change to the shores of Terengganu, east coast Peninsular Malaysia. The change in wave magnitude is thought to be the main agent for this change. Though this naturally occurring phenomenon brings changes to the coastal area, this is somehow compensated naturally in the following southwest monsoon season change. The point of interest that triggered this study is the presence and effect of humanmade structures in the vicinity of the coastal area that brings further deterioration to these areas. The methods used to identify the erosional process at the coastal areas are mainly the total station method; measuring the width of beach at different tide levels as well as the grain size distribution of sediments washed onto the beach. This method was done to classify the mean, sorting and skewness of the sediments deposited. With this data, obtained at the start of monsoon season and during the occurrence, the difference between these two timelines can be graphed to depict a clearer picture. The positive trend of deposition can be observed to almost all the stations with an exception to a few stations due to the presence of the groin. Result obtained indicates that Teluk Lipat beaches mainly dominated by very coarse to coarse-grained based on the calculation of the mean. The skewness holds a positive trend before the monsoon and negatively skewed during the pre-monsoon. Through heavy mineral analysis, there are variants of minerals that were identified within all samples point in Teluk Lipat Beach. Quartz mainly dominates the majority minerals found in the sample, followed by other minerals that have shown its presence in previous stations, such as tourmaline, iron oxide and andalusite. This analysis was carried out to highlight the mineral origin before it was deposited in the coastal area