In contrast tomultivariate techniques such as PCA, visual
comparison of PAH fingerprints and diagnostic binary ratios
are preferable since they require no environmental insights
of interpreting correlation coefficients of certain variables in
each principal component and thus overcome the limitations
of PCA. Overall, the main purposes of this study are to
comprehensively investigate the fingerprints and diagnostic
binary ratios of PAH aerosols from various emission sources
in Songkhla province with marine deposits in Tsunami 2004
affected coastal area of Thailand. These findings will open
a new window in applying PAHs as a “chemical proxy”
to identify Tsunami backwash deposits and thus enhance
the knowledge of Tsunami impacts on surficial sediment
distribution in Khao Lak coastal area of the Andaman Sea.