• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.253-260
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• 2016

A moment magnitude 3.1 earthquake occurred in the Seoul metropolitan region (SMR), Korea, on 9 February 2010. The unexpected shaking attracted much attention and raised concerns about the seismic hazards and risks in the SMR, which was regarded as an area safe from any earthquake hazard. The SMR has a population of 25 million and is one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world. A shakemap for a scenario earthquake with magnitude 6.5 and focal depth 12 km implies that the SMR will be exposed to serious risk because of its large population and the high vulnerability of its buildings. Although the instrumentally recorded earthquakes discussed in this article cannot be classified as major events, they should not be discounted as insignificant. Considering the low seismicity, micro-earthquakes below the magnitude of a conventional seismic network can achieve would be used to estimate background information in the evaluation of earthquake hazards and risks.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.272-282
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• 2019

Although the knowledge of current seismicity is a critical information for making and implementing effective earthquake-related policy, the detailed seismicity information of the metropolitan areas with high-population density has been largely underestimated due to the high-level of cultural noise and small earthquake magnitude. This study presents 12 earthquakes including 2 earthquakes previously known and 10 additional earthquakes occurred from 2010 to 2017 in Busan, but they were unreported by the Korea Meteorological Administration. Matched filter technique is used to detect micro-earthquakes. Although the epicenters of micro-earthquakes though present a distinguished linearity, a correlation with faults in the area is unknown. A repeated micro-seismicity suggests that there are subsurface structures responsible for observed events. If large earthquakes occur along the fault in Busan, they may cause catastrophic natural disasters. Given the fact that the recent earthquakes did not accompany any surface signatures, it is highly recommended that the current micro-seismicity be investigated, and updated seismicity information be incorporated into establishing active fault maps in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.15 no.9
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• pp.29-36
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• 2014

Under the situation that the seismic vulnerability are a worsening problem in many world's megacities, the disaster preparedness including earthquake hazards is a matter of primary concern in the capital city of Korea, Seoul. Especially, because it is hard to move or dismantle the architectural heritages, the mitigation of earthquake damages is potentially more difficult than other structures. Moreover, in order to decide the proper preparedness plan against future earthquakes, it is very important to understand how soils pass the seismic waves to architectural heritages. In this paper, therefore, the ground condition and depth of bedrock was investigated by the MASW-method at heritages located in Seoul. Then one-dimensional seismic response analysis was conducted based on the distribution of shear wave velocity. As the major result of analyses, peak acceleration, site amplification factor and natural period are proposed in each site for recurrence period.