The spatial distributions of heavy metals, magnetic susceptibility and granulometric contents have been assessed for beach and intertidal sectors of North-East coast of Tamilnadu, India. Metal concentrations and magnetic susceptibility are high, moderate and low in WER, MER and LER respectively. The measured concentrations are compared with background and toxicological reference values, results insist that in both sectors adverse biological effect is possible in some sites due to the excess Ni and Pb. Calculated three different indexes (PLI, PER and mERM-Q) indicate that in beach and intertidal samples shows moderate and low degree of potential ecological risk respectively. The studied metals might have 21% probability of being toxic in both sectors. Studied metal concentrations, calculated indexes, magnetic susceptibility and clay content are low in intertidal sector. Dominant factors for calculated indexes have been assessed in both sectors. In both cases, all the calculated indexes are positively (low) correlated with magnetic susceptibility and clay. © 2022 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.