A History of Geomorphological Researches on Baekdusan Volcano

백두산 화산지형에 관한 연구사

Few studies have dealt with the question of when Mt. Baekdusan became known as a volcano. Attention has been focused rather on the issue of establishing the boundary between the Joseon Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty than the scientific nature of Baekdusan as a volcano. It is only in the late Joseon Dynasty that Park Jong (1764), who was the scholar of the Gwanbuk region, authored the first travel journal on Mt. Baekdu and described poseok. Due to the scientific curiosity of Westerners on the existence of mysterious snow peak on the border, it was first introduced to the Royal Geographical Society by a British man, H.E.M. James in 1887, who revealed for the first time that Mt. Baekdu is a dead volcano, and that the white color on the top is due to wide-spread pumice. Russian expedition teams including Strel'bitskii (Стрельбицкий, 1894, and Garin (Гарин-Михайловский, 1898), also explored this mountain seeking natural resources and territory of East Asia and the Manchurian region in pursuit of Russian Imperial interests explored and described Baekdusan as a volcano.