• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.145-152
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• 2008

A fault gouge zone which is about 25cm thick crops out along a small valley in Yangbuk-myeon, Gyeongju city. It is divided into greenish brown gouge and bluish gray gouge by color. Under the microscope, the gouges have a lot of porphyroclasts composed of old gouge fragments, quartz, feldspar and iron minerals. Clay minerals are abundant in matrix, defining strikingly P foliation by preferred orientation. Microstructural differences between bluish pay gouge and greenish brown gouge are as follows: greenish brown gouge compared to bluish gray gouge is (1) rich in clay minerals, (2) small in size and number of porphyroclasts, and (3) plentiful in iron minerals which are mostly hematites, while chiefly pyrites in bluish gray gouge. Hematites are considered to be altered from pyrites in the early-formed greenish brown gouge under the influence of hydrothermal fluids accompanied during the formation of bluish gray gouge that also precipitated pyrites. It is believed that the fault core including bluish gray gouge zone and greenish brown gouge zone was formed by progressive cataclastic flow. In the first stage the fault core initiates from damage zone of early faulting. In the second stage damage zone actively transforms into breccia zone by repeated fracturing. The third stage includes greenish brown (old) gouge formation in the center of the fault core mainly by particle grinding. In the third stage further deformation leads to the formation of new (bluish gray) gouge zone while old gouge zone undergoes strain hardening. Consequently, the whole gouge zone in the core widens.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.71-85
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• 2020

To understand behavior of fault cores in the field of geotechnical and geological engineering, we present an investigation of the physical properties (breccia and clay contents, unit weight, porosity, and water content) and friction characteristics (internal friction angle and cohesion) of fault cores, in granitic, sedimentary, and volcanic rocks in South Korea. The breccia contents in the fault cores are positively correlated with unit weight and negatively correlated with clay content, porosity, and water content. The inter-quartile ranges of internal friction angles and cohesion calculated from direct shear tests are 16.7-38.1° and 2.5-25.3 kPa, respectively. The influence of physical properties on the friction characteristics of the fault cores was analyzed and showed that in all three rock types the internal friction angles are positively correlated with breccia content and unit weight, and negatively correlated with clay content, porosity, and water content. In contrast, the cohesions of the fault cores are negatively correlated with breccia content and unit weight, and positively correlated with clay content, porosity, and water content.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.387-393
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• 2015

Fault breccia, produced by fracturing and comminution of host rock during fault activity, is a common component within fault cores. Fault breccia may display a preferred orientationin accordance with the sense of motion on the fault. Here we use a numerical analysis technique to study the effects of the distribution and content of breccia in fault core on the elastic moduli. The analytical models are grouped into those in which breccias display a preferred orientation within fault core and those in which breccias are randomly oriented. The breccia compositions considered here are granite and shale, and the breccia contents are 10 wt%, 20 wt%, and 30 wt%. Our results show that for all the cases considered, differences in the deformation moduli fall within the range 0.1%~1.1% and differences in the elastic moduli fall within the range 0.02~0.4 MPa. Thus, the distribution and content of fault breccia have almost no effect on the elastic moduli.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.171-193
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• 2019

This study aims to identify the geometry and internal structures of the Yeongdeok Fault, a branch fault of the Yangsan Fault, by detailed mapping and to characterize its kinematics by analyzing the attitudes of sedimentary rocks adjacent to the fault, slip data on the fault surfaces, and anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) of the fault gouges. The Yeongdeok Fault, which shows a total extension of 40 km on the digital elevation map, cuts the Triassic Yeongdeok Granite and the Cretaceous sedimentary and volcanic rocks with about 8.1 km of dextral strike-slip offset. The NNW- or N-S-striking Yeongdeok Fault runs as a single fault north of Hwacheon-ri, Yeongdeok-eup, but south of Hwacheon-ri it branches into two faults. The western one of these two faults shows a zigzag-shaped extension consisting of a series of NNE- to NE- and NNW-striking segments, while the eastern one is extended south-southeastward and then merged with the Yangsan Fault in Gangu-myeon, Yeongdeok-gun. The Yeongdeok Fault dips eastward with an angle of > $65^{\circ}$ at most outcrops and shows its fault cores and damage zones of 2~15 m and of up to 180 m wide, respectively. The fault cores derived from several different wall rocks, such as granites and sedimentary and volcanic rocks, show different deformation patterns. The fault cores derived from granites consist mainly of fault breccias with gouge zones less than 10 cm thick, in which shear deformation is concentrated. While the fault cores derived from sedimentary rocks consist of gouges and breccia zones, which anastomose and link up each other with greater widths than those derived from granites. The attitudes of sedimentary rocks adjacent to the fault become tilted at a high angle similar to that of the fault. The fault slip data and AMS of the fault gouges indicate two main events of the Yeongdeok Fault, (1) sinistral strike-slip under NW-SE compression and then (2) dextral strike-slip under NE-SW compression, and shows the overwhelming deformation feature recorded by the later dextral strike-slip. Comparing the deformation history and features of the Yeongdeok Fault in the study area with those of the Yangsan Fault of previous studies, it is interpreted that the two faults experienced the same sinistral and dextral strike-slip movements under the late Cretaceous NW-SE compression and the Paleogene NE-SW compression, respectively, despite the slight difference in strike of the two faults.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.9-20
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• 2017

To date, several studies have been carried out to partially compare and analyze the resistivity values within the Yangsan fault zone through the electrical resistivity survey of the exposed fault zone. However, it is not easy to directly observe a large scaled fault like Yangsan fault that has been weathered, especially due to the weathering of the fault core. This study aimed to reveal the characteristics of location, geometry, the fault core zone as well as underground distribution of the associated fault damage zone, based on the results of electrical resistivity and micro-topographic surveys as well as field geology survey in the southern Yangsan fault zone (Eonyang area). The resistivity anomaly zones developed in the NNE to NE direction were confirmed by the electrical resistivity survey. According to the electrical resistivity, micro-topographic, and field geologic surveys, the Yangsan fault has been formed by three to five fault cores, fault damage zones and/or fractured zones.

• 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.8 no.2
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• pp.175-188
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• 1998

This paper describes the internal structures and K-Ar ages of fault gouges collected from the Dongnae fault zone. This fault zone is internally zoned and occurs in the multiple fault cores. A fault core consists of thin gouge and narrow cataclastic zones that are bounded by a much thicker damage zone. Intensity of deformation and alteration increases from damage zone through cataclastic zone to gouge zone. It is thought that cataclasis of brittle deformation was the dominant strain-accomodation mechanism in the early stage of deformation to form the gouge zone and that crushed materials in the regions of maximum localization of fault slip subsequently moved by cataclastic flow. Deformation mechanism drastically changed from brittle processes to fluid-assisted flow along the gouge zone as the high porosity and permeability of pulverzied materials during faulting facilitated the influx of the hydrothermal fluids. Subsequently, the fluids reacted with gouge materials to form clay minerals. Fracturing and alteration could have repeatedly taken place in the gouge zone by elevated fluid pressures generated from the reduction of pore volume due to the formation of clay minerals and precipitation of other materials. XRD analysis revealed that the most common clay minerals of the gouge zones are illite and smectite with minor zeolite and kaolinite. Most of illites are composed of 1Md polytype, indicating the products of hydrothermal alteration. The major activities of the Dongnae fault can be divided into two periods based upon K-Ar age data of the fault gouges : 51.4∼57.5Ma and 40.3∼43.6Ma. Judging from the enviromental condition of clay mineral formation, it is inferred that the hydrothermal alteration of older period occured at higher temperature than that of younger period.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.183-189
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• 2010

Fault gouge samples were collected from the fault cores of the boundary faults between the Cretaceous Basement and the Tertiary Waeup Basin. Fractal dimensions (D) were obtained by using survivor grains which were analysed from six thin sections of the gouges under the optical microscope. The elliptical survivor grains show a shape preferred orientation almost parallel to clay foliation in matrix, suggesting that it was formed by the rotation of the survivor grains in abundant fine-grained matrix during repeated fault slips. The size distributions of the survivor grains follow power-laws with fractal dimensions in the 2.40-3.02 range. D values of all samples but one are higher than a specific D value equal to 2.58 which predicts the self similarity of fragmentation process in constrained comminution model (Sammis et al., 1987), which indicates large fault slip and multiple faulting. Probably the higher D values than 2.58 mean the non-self-similar evolution of cataclastic rocks where fragmentation mechanism changed from constrained comminution to the grain abrasion accompanying selective fracture of larger grains.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.65-79
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• 2019

In this study, simple regression and multiple regression analyses were performed to analyze the relationship between breccia and clay content and shear strength in fault cores. The results of the simple regression analysis performed for each rock (andesitic rock, granite, and sedimentary rock) and three levels of normal stress (${\sigma}_n=54$, 108, 162 kPa), reveal that the shear strength is proportional to breccia content and inversely proportional to clay content. Furthermore, as normal stress increases, the shear strength is influenced by the change in component content, correlating more strongly with clay content than with breccia content. In the multiple regression analysis, which considers both breccia and clay content, the shear strength is found to be more sensitive to the change in breccia content than to that of clay. As a result, the most suitable regression model for each rock is proposed by comparing the coefficients of determination ($R^2$) estimated from the simple regression analysis with those from the multiple regression analysis. The proposed models show high coefficients of determination of $R^2=0.624-0.830$.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.187-196
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• 2016

We conducted three-dimensional finite element analysis to predict the presence of upcoming fault zones during tunneling. The analysis considered longitudinal displacements measured at tunnel face, and used 28 numerical models with various fault attitudes. The x-MR (moving range) control chart was used to analyze quantitatively the effects of faults distributed ahead of the tunnel face, given the occurrence of a longitudinal displacement. The numerical models with fault were classified as fault gouge, fault breccia, and fault damage zones. The width of fault cores was set to 1 m (fault gouge 0.5 m and fault breccia 0.5 m) and the width of fault damage zones was set to 2 m. The results, suggest that fault centers could be predicted at 2~26 m ahead of the tunnel face and that faults could be predicted earliest in the 45° dip model. In addition, faults could be predicted earliest when the angle between the direction of tunnel advance and the strike of the fault was smallest.