• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.113-121
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• 2012

The mechanical characteristics of a fault gouge from near Mt. Kumjung in Kumjung-Gu, Busan, were estimated from laboratory tests on different joint models. Fault gouge samples and joint samples in biotite granite were obtained from boreholes in the study area that had penetrated small faults associated with the Dongnae and Yangsan faults. XRD and SEM analyses revealed that for the fault gouge consists of several clay minerals with tabular structure (kaolinite, montmorillonite, illite, sericite), which could cause the considerable reduction of shear strength when wet. The shear strength of the fault gouge was obtained from direct shear tests of the fault gouge itself and from direct shear tests of several natural/artificial joint surfaces coated with fault gouge. The results indicate that the reduction of shear strength is more abrupt for the joint surfaces coated with fault gouge compared with uncoated joint surfaces, and that the friction angle of the fault gouge between joint surfaces is much lower than the internal friction angle of the fault gouge itself. Fault gouges in contact with rock, therefore, could have a stronger negative effect on the stability of structures in rock masses than the fault gouge itself.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.347-357
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• 2019

The main fault zone of the Yangsan Fault, located in the southeastern part of the Korean peninsula, is newly found at the Cheonjin-ri, Dudong-myeon, Ulju-gun, Ulsan, Korea. About 100 wide fault zone exposed along the Guryangcheon stream strikes N-S and dips over 70° toward east. The main fault zone is composed of N-S-striking gouge and breccia layers and enclosed lenses. Striations on the subvertical fault surfaces mainly indicate dextral slip, but moderate-angle minor reverse faults showing top-tothe-west shearing transect the foliated high-angle gouge and breccia layers. These indicate that the dextral slip along the fault, which is interpreted as the main movement of the fault, was followed by reverse slip. The fault zone is composed of N-S-striking gouge layers and enclosed, fractured lenses. Locally distributed NE-SW- to E-W-striking fault gouge layers with fractured lenses show asymmetric folds, indicating progressive dextral movement. Therefore, the exposed fault zone has a high internal complexity due to the combined effects of NNE-SSW-trending dextral shearing and E-W-trending shortening by compression. In addition, around main boundary fault between the western volcanic rocks and eastern sedimentary rocks offsets the overlying Quaternary fluvial conglomerate. This is a good example that understanding of internal structures of main fault zone (or fault core), such as the Yangsan Fault, plays an important role to study the Quaternary activity and to find the active fault.

• Proceedings of the KSEEG Conference
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• 2002.04a
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• pp.277-279
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• 2002

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.211-230
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• 2016

Detailed mapping along the Keumwang fault reveals a complex history of multiple brittle reactivations following late Jurassic and early Cretaceous ductile shearing. The fault core consists of a 10~50 m thick fault gouge layer bounded by a 30~100 m thick damaged zone. The Pre-cambrian gneiss and Jurassic granite underwent at least six distinct stages of fault movements based on deformation environment, time and mechanism. Each stage characterized by fault kinematics and dynamics at different deformation environment. Stage 1 generated mylonite series along the Keumwang shear zone by sinistral ductile shearing during late Jurassic and early Cretaceous. Stage 2 was a mostly brittle event generating cataclasite series superimposed on the mylonite series of the Keumwang shear zone. The roundness of pophyroclastes and the amount of matrix increase from host rocks to ultracataclasite indicating stronger cataclastic flow toward the fault core. At stage 3, fault gouge layer superimposed on the cataclasite generated during stage 2 and the sedimentary basins (Umsung and Pungam) formed along the fault by sinistral strike-slip movement. Fragments of older cataclasite suspended in the fault gouge suggest extensive reworking of fault rocks at brittle deformation environments. At stage 4, systematic en-echelon folds, joints and faults were formed in the sedimentary basins by sinistral strike-slip reactivation of the Keumwang fault. Most of the shearing is accommodated by slip along foliations and on discrete shear surfaces, while shear deformation tends to be relatively uniformly distributed within the fault damage zone developed in the mudrocks in the sedimentary basins. Fine-grained andesitic rocks intruded during stage 4. Stage 5 dextral strike-slip activity produced shear planes and bands in the andesitic rocks. ESR(Electron Spin Resonance) dates of fault gouge show temporal clustering within active period and migrating along the strike of the Keumwang fault during the stage 6 at the Quaternary period.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.293-305
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• 2009

The Gilan-Cheongsong area, which is in contact with Yeongyang and Uiseong Blocks of Gyeongsang Basin, Korea, consists of Precambrian metamorphic rocks, Triassic Cheongsong granite, Cretaceous sedimentary rocks(Iljik, Hupyeongdong, Jeomgok Formations), and Cretaceous igneous rocks(andesite, quartz porphyry, felsite). In this area are developed faults trending in (W)NW, NNW, ENE, NS, (N)NE directions which are representative in the Gyeongsang Basin. We analyzed the geometric and kinematic characteristics of fracture systems to inquire into movement history and sense of these faults in this area. This study suggests that these faults were mainly strike-slip movement. The orientations of fracture sets show ENE, NNW, (W)NW, (N)NE, NS in descending order of frequency. Their prolongation presents (W)NW, NNW, ENE, (N)NE, NS in descending order of predominance, and also agrees with that of faults in this area. The development sequence and movement sense of fracture sets are summarized as follows; (1) (W)NW: dextral shearing $\rightarrow$ (2) (W)NW and NNW: conjugate shearing(the former: dextral, the latter: sinistral) $\rightarrow$ (3) NNW: dextral shearing $\rightarrow$ (4) (W)NW: sinistral shearing $\rightarrow$ (5) ENE: dextral shearing $\rightarrow$ (6) ENE and NS: conjugate shearing(the former: sinistral, the latter: dextral) $\rightarrow$ (7) (N)NE: sinistral shearing, and this result is closely associated with the development sequence and movement sense of faults developed in this area.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.127-140
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• 2015

A fault is one of the critical factors that may lead to a possible ground collapse occurring in construction site. A fault core, however, possibly acting as a failure plane in whole fault zone, is composed of fractured rock and gouge nonuniformly distributed and thus can be characterized by its wide range of shear strength which is generally acquired by experimental method for stability analysis. In this study, we performed direct shear test and grain size distribution analysis for 62 fault core samples cropped from 12 different spots located in the vicinity of Kyongju and Ulsan, Korea. As a result, the range of shear strength representing the characteristics of fault cores in the study regions is determined with regard to vertical stress using a regression analysis for experiment data. The weight ratio of gravels in the samples is proportional to the shear strength and that of silt and clay is in inverse proportion to the shear strength. For most samples, the coefficient of determination is over 0.7 despite of inhomogeneity of them and consequently we determined the lower limit and upper limit of the shear strength with regard to the weight ratio by setting the confidence interval of 95%.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.397-409
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• 2014

The appearance of faults during tunnel construction is often difficult to predict in terms of strike, dip, scale, and strength, even though this information is essential in determining the strength of the surrounding rock mass. However, the strength and rock mass classification of fault zones are generally determined empirically on the construction site. In this study, 109 specimens were collected from fault of nine area throughout Korea, and direct shear tests were conducted and the particle distribution was analyzed to better characterize the fault zones. Six multiple regression models were established, using 97 of the specimens, to analyze the correlation between the shear strengths and weight rations of these fault materials. A verification of the six models, using the remaining 12 specimens, shows that in all of the models the coefficient of determination yielded $R^2{\geq}0.60$, with two models yielding $R^2{\geq}0.69$. These results provide useful information for determining the shear strength of fault materials in future studies.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.197-213
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• 2019

We simulated the fault reactivation experiment conducted at 'Main Fault' intersecting the low permeability clay formations of Mont Terri Underground Research Laboratory in Switzerland using TOUGH-FLAC simulator. The fluid flow along a fault was modelled with solid elements and governed by Darcy's law with the cubic law in TOUGH2, whereas the mechanical behavior of a single fault was represented by creating interface elements between two separating rock blocks in FLAC3D. We formulate the hydro-mechanical coupling relation of hydraulic aperture to consider the elastic fracture opening and failure-induced dilation for reproducing the abrupt changes in injection flow rate and monitoring pressure at fracture opening pressure. A parametric study was conducted to examine the effects of in-situ stress condition and fault deformation and strength parameters and to find the optimal parameter set to reproduce the field observations. In the best matching simulation, the fracture opening pressure and variations of injection flow rate and monitoring pressure showed good agreement with field experiment results, which suggests the capability of the numerical model to reasonably capture the fracture opening and propagation process. The model overestimated the fault displacement in shear direction and the range of reactivated zone, which was attributed to the progressive shear failures along the fault at high injection pressure. In the field experiment results, however, fracture tensile opening seems the dominant mechanism affecting the hydraulic aperture increase.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.217-225
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• 2013

We carried out geometrical, kinematic, and geomechanical analyses on a lineament (the Imgok fault) near Gangneung, observed in ASTER images and aerial photographs, and field surveys. Earthquake focal mechanism solutions, used to estimate the present-day stress state, revealed that the direction of maximum compression is approximately N$70^{\circ}$E and that the stress condition is in favor of either strike-slip or reverse movement on the fault. The strike of the fault is not ideal for slip under the present-day stress field and thus the fault has a low slip tendency. However, the fault may be able to slip if the frictional coefficient (${\mu}$), representing the resistance of the fault to slip, is sufficiently low (e.g., ${\mu}$ < 0.25).

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.493-505
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• 2013

This numerical study investigates seismicity and fault slip induced by fluid injection in deep geothermal reservoir with pre-existing fractures and fault. Particle Flow Code 2D is used with additionally implemented hydro-mechanical coupled fluid flow algorithm and acoustic emission moment tensor inversion algorithm. The output of the model includes spatio-temporal evolution of induced seismicity (hypocenter locations and magnitudes) and fault deformation (failure and slip) in relation to fluid pressure distribution. The model is applied to a case of fluid injection with constant rates changing in three steps using different fluid characters, i.e. the viscosity, and different injection locations. In fractured reservoir, spatio-temporal distribution of the induced seismicity differs significantly depending on the viscosity of the fracturing fluid. In a fractured reservoir, injection of low viscosity fluid results in larger volume of induced seismicity cloud as the fluid can migrate easily to the reservoir and cause large number and magnitude of induced seismicity in the post-shut-in period. In a faulted reservoir, fault deformation (co-seismic failure and aseismic slip) can occur by a small perturbation of fracturing fluid (<0.1 MPa) can be induced when the injection location is set close to the fault. The presented numerical model technique can practically be used in geothermal industry to predict the induced seismicity pattern and magnitude distribution resulting from hydraulic stimulation of geothermal reservoirs prior to actual injection operation.