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Geological Review on the Distribution and Source of Uraniferous Grounwater in South Korea

국내 고함량 우라늄 지하수의 분포와 기원에 관한 지질학적 고찰

  • Hwang, Jeong (Department of Construction Safety and Disaster Prevention Engineering, Daejeon University)
  • 황정 (대전대학교 건설안전방재공학과)
  • Received : 2018.10.15
  • Accepted : 2018.12.12
  • Published : 2018.12.31

Abstract

The most of groundwater with high U-concentration occur in the Jurassic granite of Gyeonggi massif and Ogcheon belt, and some of them occur in the Cretaceous granite of Ogcheon belt. On the contrary, they do not occur in the Jurassic granite of Yeongnam massif and the Cretaceou granite of Gyeongsang basin. The Jurassic and Cretacous granite, the host rock of high U-groundwater, were resulted from parental magma with high ratio of crustal material and highly differentiated product of fractional crystalization. These petrogenetic characteristics explain the geological evidence for preferential distribution of uraniferous groundwater in each host rock. It were reported recently that high U-content, low Th/U ratio and soluble mineral occurrence of uraninite in the two-mica granite of Daejeon area which have characteristics of S-type peraluminous and highly differntiated product. It is the mineralogical-geochemical evidences supporting the fact that the two-mica granite is the effective source of uranium in groundwater. The biotite granite and two-mica granite of Jurassic age were reported as biotite granite in many geological map even though two-mica granite occur locally. This fact suggest that the influence of two-mica granite can not be ignored in uraniferous groundwater hosted by biotite granite.

고함량 우라늄 지하수의 대부분은 경기육괴와 옥천대의 쥬라기 화강암 지질에서 그리고 일부는 옥천대의 백악기 화강암 지질에서 산출되며, 영남육괴의 쥬라기 화강암 지질과 경상분지의 백악기 화강암 지질에서는 거의 산출되지 않는다. 경기육괴와 옥천대의 쥬라기 화강암과 옥천대의 백악기 화강암은 근원 마그마내 지각물질의 비율이 높고 고분화된 특성을 보이는데, 이러한 암석-성인적 특성은 고함량 우라늄 지하수가 해당 암상에서 우선적으로 산출되는 지질학적 주요 요인이다. S-type의 과알루미너질의 고분화 암상인 대전지역의 복운모 화강암에서는 높은 U-함량과 낮은 Th/U ratio 그리고 용해성 광물인 우라니나이트가 산출된다. 이러한 특성은 복운모 화강암이 지하수 내 우라늄의 유용한 공급원임을 지시하는 광물-지구화학적 주요 요인이다. 여러 지역의 지질도폭에서 쥬라기의 흑운모 화강암과 복운모 화강암을 서로 구분하지 않고 흑운모 화강암으로 기재한 경우가 많음을 고려하면, 고함량 우라늄 지하수가 산출되는 흑운모 화강암 지질에서도 복운모 화강암의 영향이 있을 것으로 추정된다.

Keywords

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Fig. 1. Spatial distributions of the representative sites in which uraniferous groundwater occur shown on Mesozoic granite lithology and tectonic map.

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Fig. 2. Molar A/NK vs. A/CNK diagram showing the peraluminous character of the two-mica granite in Daejeon area (data from Hwang and Moon, 2018).

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Fig. 3. Plot for U value vs. Th/U ratio of the two-mica granite in Daejeon area (data from Hwang and Moon, 2018).

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Fig. 4. The backscattered electron image and microprobe X-ray spectra showing the U-mineral occurrence and identification of Uraninite (a) and coffinite(b) in the two- mica granite of Daejeon area (after Hwang et al., 2014).

Table 1. Summary of characteristics on the representative sites in which the highest U-concentrations were reported in groundwater according to host rock type.

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