• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.268-289
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• 2013

The Dinosaur tracksite at Jeori, Geumseongmyeon, Euiseonggun, Gyeongsangbukdo, Korea (National Monument No. 373) has been studied in the aspects of location, stratigraphy, sedimentology, fossil occurrence, unique geological records, literature, significance in natural history, preservation, and management. On the basis of these features, the Jeori tracksite has been assessed semiquantitavely. The Jeori tracksite occurs in the Sagok Formation (Albian) of the Euiseong sub-basin, and over 300 footprints forming 12 sauropod trackways, 10 ornithopod trackways, and 1 theropod trackways are preserved in this tracksite. The track-bearing deposits consist of tabular-bedded medium- to fine-grained arkose with mudstone drape, interlaminated fine-grained sandstone to siltstone and mudstone, and shaly mudstone. The dinosaur tracks are preserved in the interlaminated fine-grained sandstone to siltstone and mudstone, and most of them are observed as underprints. The track-bearing deposits are interpreted as sheetflood deposits on the floodplain under a seasonal paleoclimatic condition with alternating of wetting and drying periods. Multiple tension fractures with NE strike were formed in the track-bearing bed, which resulted in that tracks seem to occur in several horizons. The significance in natural history of the tracksite can be summarized as follows: 1) the historical implication of the Jeori tracksite as the firstly designated National Monument of dinosaur fossil sites, 2) the high density of the occurrence of diverse footprints (over 300) within small area (about $1,600m^2$), and 3) the significance of the tension fractures associated with the track-bearing bed as geoeducational records for the understanding the development of fault. In order to share the value of the Jeori tracksite in the aspect of natural history with the community and public, the interpretive panel should be modified to include figures explaining paleoenvironment and tension fault development. In addition it is recommended that a brochure be published briefly explaining the tracksite and to educate the residents about the natural and social significance of the tracksite. For the safety of visitors it would be desirable for the road in front of the tracksite to be moved at least 10 m southward, which could mitigate the shaking of the track bed caused by traffic.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.303-320
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• 2019

Plants interact with various biotic and abiotic environmental factors. It requires much information to understand the traits of a plant species. A shortage of information would restrict the assessment, especially in the evaluation of what kind of factors influence a plant species to face extinction. Polygonatum stenophyllum Maxim. is one of the northern plants of which Korea is the southern distribution edge. The Korean Ministry of Environment had designated it to be the endangered species until December 2015. Although it is comparatively widespread, and a large population has recently been reported, it is assessed to be vulnerable due to the low population genetic diversity. This study evaluated the current distribution of Polygonatum stenophyllum Maxim. We investigated the vegetational environment, population structures, phenology, soil environment, and self-incompatibility based on the results. Lastly, we evaluated the current threats observed in the habitats. The habitats tended to be located in the areas where the masses at the edge of the stream accumulated except for those that were located on slopes of some mountainous areas. Most of them showed a stable population structure and had re-established or recruited seedlings. Polygonatum stenophyllum Maxim. had the difference in time when the shoots appeared above the ground depending on the depth of the rhizome located in the underground. In particular, the seedlings and juveniles had their rhizome located shallow in the soil. Visits by pollinator insects and success in pollination were crucial factors for bearing of fruits by Polygonatum stenophyllum Maxim. The threats observed in the habitat of Polygonatum stenophyllum Maxim. included the expansion of cultivated land, construction of new buildings, and construction of river banks and roads. Despite such observed risk factors, it is not likely that there would be rapid population reduction or extinction because of its widespread distribution with the total population of more than 2.7 million individuals and the new populations established by the re-colonization.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.1-11
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to propose a sustainable village-unit urban regeneration plan for the Ewha Mural Village, where mural artists recovered concrete fences to be followed by some residents damaging the mural paintings. Through a review of the existing literature and a preliminary survey, we derived the urban regeneration factors (environmental sustainability, economic sustainability, and social sustainability) applicable at the village level. After an empirical survey on the residents, we tried to identify various problems of the Ewha Mural Village. Residents selected the factors of accessibility, parking management, diversity of industries, creation of new jobs, community participation of residents for the mural village's activation, and stable living spaces. In the case of Ewha Mural Village, physical environment factors for the residents at the time of construction were not considered and the village was mainly planned using budget-based murals. Since then, the inequality of economic benefits intensified the conflicts among the residents. In addition, public benefits, such as establishing new industries and employing outsiders, were not provided, and these facts appear to have led to an unsustainable murals village, in which the murals that are the protagonists of the village revitalization are being destroyed. Therefore, the urban regeneration of Ewha Mural Village should be designed considering a region where some residential areas can be transformed into tourist areas. In addition, it is essential to employ a win-win method to improve the living environment, such as road maintenance, not only partial economic benefits, such as increased land-value, and to increase resident's value as a common asset within the village itself.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.1-11
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• 2020

Noksan is a green area in the form of a hill located inside Gyeongbokgung Palace, unrecognized as a cultural heritage space. This study analyzed the literature and the actual site to derive its landscape meaning by examining the background for the formation of Noksan and how it changed. As a result, the identity of Noksan was related to the geomagnetic vein, pine forest, and deers, and the following are its landscape meaning. First, several ancient maps, including the 「Map of Gyeongbokgung Palace」 depicted the mountain range continuing from Baegaksan(Bugaksan) Mountain to areas inside Gyeongbokgung Palace, and Noksan is a forest located on the geomantic vein, which continues to Gangnyeongjeon Hall and Munsojeon Hall. On Bukgwoldo(Map of Gyeongbokgung Palace), Noksan is depicted with Yugujeong Pavilion, Namyeogo Storage, office for the manager of Noksan, the brook on north and south, and the wall. It can be understood as a prototypical landscape composed of minimal facilities and the forest. Second, the northern palace walls of Gyeongbokgung Palace were constructed in King Sejong's reign. The area behind Yeonjo(king's resting place) up to Sinmumun Gate(north gate of the palace) was regarded as the rear garden when Gyeongbokgung Palace was constructed. However, a new rear garden was built outside the Sinmumun Gate when the palace was rebuilt. Only Noksan maintained the geomantic vein under the circumstance. However, the geographical features changed enormously during the Japanese colonial era when they constructed a huge official residence in the rear garden outside the Sinmumun Gate and the residence of the governor-general and road in the site of the Blue House. Moreover, Noksan was severed from the foothill of Baegaksan Mountain when 'Cheongwadae-ro(road)' was constructed between the Blue House and Noksan in 1967. Third, the significant characteristics and conditions of the forest, which became the origin of Noksan, were identified based on the fact that the geomatic state of the northeastern side of Gyeongbokgung Palace, the naecheongnyong area in geomantic terms(the innermost 'dragon vein' among the veins that stretched out from the central mountain toward the left side), and they planted pine trees to reinforce the 'ground vein' and the fact that it was expressed as the 'Pine Field' before the Japanese Invasion of Korea in 1592. The pine forest, mixed with oaks, cherries, elms, and chestnuts, identified through the excavation investigation, can be understood as the original vegetation landscape. Noksan's topography changed; a brook disappeared due to mounding, and foreign species such as acacia and ornamental juniper were planted. Currently, pine trees' ratio decreased while the forest is composed of oaks, mixed deciduous trees, some ailanthus, and willow. Fourth, the fact the name, 'Noksan,' came from the deer, which symbolized spirit, longevity, eternal life, and royal authority, was confirmed through an article of The Korea Daily News titled 'One of the seven deers in Nokwon(deer garden) in Gyeongbokgung Palace starved to death.'

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.409-421
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• 2022

Achieving a highly resolved spatial distribution of Mn-bearing minerals and elements in the natural ferromanganese nodules can provide detailed knowledge of the temporal variations of geochemical conditions affecting the formation processes of nodules. While a recent study utilizing Raman spectroscopy has reported the changes in the manganate mineral phases with growth for spherical nodules from the Arctic Sea, the distributions of minerals and elements in the nodules from the shallow Arctic Sea with non-spherical forms have not yet fully elucidated. Here, we reported the micro-laser Raman spectra with varying data acquisition points along three different profiles from the center to the outermost rim of the non-spherical ferromanganese nodules collected from the East Siberian Sea (~73 m). The elemental distributions in the nodule (such as Mn, Fe, etc.) were also investigated by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analysis to observe the internal structure and mineralogical details. Based on the microscopic observation, the internal structures of a non-spherical nodule can be divided into three different regions, which are sediment-rich core, iron-rich substrate, and Mn-Fe layers. The Raman results show that the Mn-bearing mineral phases vary with the data acquisition points in the Mn-Fe layer, suggesting the changes in the geochemical conditions during nodule formation. In addition, we also observe that the mineral composition and structural characteristics depend on the profile direction from the core to the rim. Particularly, the Raman spectra obtained along one profile show the lack of Fe-(oxy)hydroxides and the noticeably high crystallinity of Mn-bearing minerals such as birnessite and todorokite. On the other hand, the spectra obtained along the other two profiles present the presence of significant amount of amorphous or poorly-ordered Fe-bearing minerals and the low crystallinity of Mn-bearing minerals. These results suggest that the diagenetic conditions varied with the different growth directions. We also observed the presence of halite in several layers in the nodule, which can be evidence of the alteration of seawater after nodule formation. The current results can provide the opportunity to obtain detailed knowledge of the formation process and geochemical environments recorded in the natural non-spherical ferromanganese nodule.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.551-561
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• 2022

Geophysical exploration methods are very useful for generating high-resolution images of underground structures, and such methods can be applied to investigation of buried cultural properties and for determining their exact locations. In this study, image feature extraction and image segmentation methods were applied to automatically distinguish the structures of buried relics from the high-resolution ground-penetrating radar (GPR) images obtained at the center of Silla Kingdom, Gyeongju, South Korea. The major purpose for image feature extraction analyses is identifying the circular features from building remains and the linear features from ancient roads and fences. Feature extraction is implemented by applying the Canny edge detection and Hough transform algorithms. We applied the Hough transforms to the edge image resulted from the Canny algorithm in order to determine the locations the target features. However, the Hough transform requires different parameter settings for each survey sector. As for image segmentation, we applied the connected element labeling algorithm and object-based image analysis using Orfeo Toolbox (OTB) in QGIS. The connected components labeled image shows the signals associated with the target buried relics are effectively connected and labeled. However, we often find multiple labels are assigned to a single structure on the given GPR data. Object-based image analysis was conducted by using a Large-Scale Mean-Shift (LSMS) image segmentation. In this analysis, a vector layer containing pixel values for each segmented polygon was estimated first and then used to build a train-validation dataset by assigning the polygons to one class associated with the buried relics and another class for the background field. With the Random Forest Classifier, we find that the polygons on the LSMS image segmentation layer can be successfully classified into the polygons of the buried relics and those of the background. Thus, we propose that these automatic classification methods applied to the GPR images of buried cultural heritage in this study can be useful to obtain consistent analyses results for planning excavation processes.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.421-433
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• 2023

The final disposal of spent nuclear fuel(SNF) from nuclear power plants takes place in a deep geological repository. The metal canister encasing the SNF is made of cast iron and copper, and is engineered to effectively isolate radioactive isotopes for a long period of time. The SNF is further shielded by a multi-barrier disposal system comprising both engineering and natural barriers. The deep disposal environment gradually changes to an anaerobic reducing environment. In this environment, sulfide is one of the most probable substances to induce corrosion of copper canister. Stress-corrosion cracking(SCC) triggered by sulfide can carry substantial implications for the integrity of the copper canister, potentially posing a significant threat to the long-term safety of the deep disposal repository. Sulfate can exist in various forms within the deep disposal environment or be introduced from the geosphere. Sulfate has the potential to be transformed into sulfide by sulfate-reducing bacteria(SRB), and this converted sulfide can contribute to the corrosion of the copper canister. Bentonite, which is considered as a potential material for buffering and backfilling, contains oxidized sulfate minerals such as gypsum(CaSO4). If there is sufficient space for microorganisms to thrive in the deep disposal environment and if electron donors such as organic carbon are adequately supplied, sulfate can be converted to sulfide through microbial activity. However, the majority of the sulfides generated in the deep disposal system or introduced from the geosphere will be intercepted by the buffer, with only a small amount reaching the metal canister. Pyrite, one of the potential sulfide minerals present in the deep disposal environment, can generate sulfates during the dissolution process, thereby contributing to the corrosion of the copper canister. However, the quantity of oxidation byproducts from pyrite is anticipated to be minimal due to its extremely low solubility. Moreover, the migration of these oxidized byproducts to the metal canister will be restricted by the low hydraulic conductivity of saturated bentonite. We have comprehensively analyzed and summarized key research cases related to the presence of sulfates, reduction processes, and the formation and behavior characteristics of sulfides and pyrite in the deep disposal environment. Our objective was to gain an understanding of the impact of sulfates and sulfides on the long-term safety of high-level radioactive waste disposal repository.