What has deposited in Pushpavanam is calcareous ooze, a type of marine ooze, explained officials of the Tamil Nadu Agriculture Engineering Department.
Calcareous ooze is a calcium carbonate mud formed from the hard parts of the bodies of free-floating organisms.
They are deposits of soft mud on the ocean floor. They form on areas of sea floor distant enough from land so that the slow, but steady deposit of dead micro organisms from overlying water is not obscured by sediments washed from the land.
“Tsunami also carried calcareous ooze but the receding waves took them back to sea. But Gaja weakened after hitting the shore, and left the ooze,” said the officials.