• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.548-557
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• 2021

Cypripedium japonicum Thunb. is an endemic plant in East Asia, distributed only in Korea, China, and Japan. At the global level, the IUCN Red List evaluates it as "Endangered Species (EN)," and at the national level in Korea, it is evaluated as "Critically Endangered Species (CR)." In this study, we investigated the characteristics of the age structure and the sustainability of the population based on the data obtained by demographic monitoring conducted for seven years in the natural habitat. C. japonicum habitats were observed in 7 regions of Korea (Pochoen, Gapyeong, Hwacheon, Chuncheon, Yeongdong, Muju, Gwangyang), and 4,356 individuals in 15 subpopulations were identified. The population size and structure differed from region to region, and artificial management had a very important effect on the size and structural change of the population. Population viability analysis (PVA) based on changes in the number of individuals of C. japonicum showed a very diverse tendency by region. And the probability of population extinction in the next 100 years was 0.00% for Pocheon, 10.90% for Gwangyang, 24.05% for Chuncheon, and 79.50% for Hwacheon. Since the above monitored study sites were located within the conservation shelters, which restricted access by humans, unauthorized collection of C. japonicum, the biggest threat to the species, was not reflected in the individual viability. So, the risk of extinction in Korea is expected to be significantly higher than that estimated in this study. Therefore, it is necessary to reflect population information in several regions that may represent various threats to determine the extinction risk of the C. japonicum population objectively. In the future, we should expand the demographic monitoring of the C. japonicum population known in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.557-574
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to analyze the cause of high PM2.5 mass concentrations in Cheongju for the period of non-Asian dust days using the weather chart, the stream lines at 850 hPa, the backward trajectory, and the weather and air quality model. As a result of analyzing the time series of PM2.5 concentrations and weather charts for the episodic days in Cheongju, the weather patterns were shown in related to long-range transport of PM2.5 from China or surrounding areas. In fact, in the PM2.5 time series, 60-80 ㎍ m-3, which is more than 2-3 times higher than the concentration attributed to Cheongju activities, was observed as a background concentration related to long-range transport. The distribution of high PM2.5 concentration was typically dependent on the locations of the high and low pressures above the ground while the upper jet stream passed through the Korean Peninsula. Consequently, the high PM2.5 concentration in Cheongju is due to massive air pollutants in the form of smog originated from industrial, household and energy combustion sources of Beijing and other nearby regions of China. These air pollutants move along a fast zonal wind caused by the atmospheric pressure arrangement. high concentration of PM2.5 in Cheongju City is because the mass of air pollutants in the form of smog generated from industrial, household and energy combustion origins in Beijing or other nearby regions of China move along a fast wind speed zone according to the atmospheric pressure arrangement of long-distance transportation. Air pollutants including PM2.5 show an M-shaped pattern that passes through the topography of the Cheongju basin from north to south as a belt or band-shaped pollutant. The ground high pressure according to the above-ground high pressure expansion area and cut-off low or low pressure arrangement, or the bands in the form of river stems appear in a gradual incremental pattern that changes into a U-shape under the influence of the wind.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.11-36
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• 2021

The solar annual (Sa) and semiannual (Ssa) tides account for much of the non-uniform annual and seasonal variability observed in sea levels. These non-equilibrium tides depend on atmospheric variations, forced by changes in the Sun's distance and declination, as well as on hydrographic conditions. Here we employ tidal harmonic analyses to calculate Sa and Ssa harmonic constants for 21 Korean coastal tidal stations (TS), operated by the Korea Hydrographic and Oceanographic Agency. We used 19 year-long (1999 to 2017) 1 hr-interval sea level records from each site, and used two conventional harmonic analysis (HA) programs (Task2K and UTide). The stability of Sa harmonic constants was estimated with respect to starting date and record length of the data, and we examined the spatial distribution of the calculated Sa and Ssa harmonic constants. HA was performed on Incheon TS (ITS) records using 369-day subsets; the first start date was January 1, 1999, the subsequent data subset starting 24 hours later, and so on up until the final start date was December 27, 2017. Variations in the Sa constants produced by the two HA packages had similar magnitudes and start date sensitivity. Results from the two HA packages had a large difference in phase lag (about 78°) but relatively small amplitude (<1 cm) difference. The phase lag difference occurred in large part since Task2K excludes the perihelion astronomical variable. Sensitivity of the ITS Sa constants to data record length (i.e., 1, 2, 3, 5, 9, and 19 years) was also tested to determine the data length needed to yield stable Sa results. HA results revealed that 5 to 9 year sea level records could estimate Sa harmonic constants with relatively small error, while the best results are produced using 19 year-long records. As noted earlier, Sa amplitudes vary with regional hydrographic and atmospheric conditions. Sa amplitudes at the twenty one TS ranged from 15.0 to 18.6 cm, 10.7 to 17.5 cm, and 10.5 to 13.0 cm, along the west coast, south coast including Jejudo, and east coast including Ulleungdo, respectively. Except at Ulleungdo, it was found that the Ssa constituent contributes to produce asymmetric seasonal sea level variation and it delays (hastens) the highest (lowest) sea levels. Comparisons between monthly mean, air-pressure adjusted, and steric sea level variations revealed that year-to-year and asymmetric seasonal variations in sea levels were largely produced by steric sea level variation and inverted barometer effect.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.618-638
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• 2022

The Middle Jurassic granite dike swarm intruding into the Paleoproterozoic banded gneiss is pervasively observed in Ueumdo, Hwaseong City, mid-western Gyeonggi Massif. Based on their cross-cutting relationships in a representative outcrop, there are four dikes (UE-A, UE-C, UE-D, UE-E), and depending on the direction, there are three granite dike groups, which are NW- (UE-A dike), NW to WNW- (UE-C dike), and NE-trending (UE-D and UE-E dikes). These granite dikes are massive, medium-to coarse-grained biotite granites, and their relative ages observed in outcrops are in the order of UE-A, UE-D (=UE-E), and UE-C. The geometric analysis of the dikes indicates that the UE-A and UE-C dikes intrude under approximately NE-SW trending horizontal minimum stress fields. The UE-A dike, which showed a relatively low average SiO2 content by major element analysis, is a product of early magma differentiation compared to other dikes; therefore, it is consistent with the relative age of each dike. The ²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U weighted mean ages for each dike obtained from SHRIMP zircon U-Pb dating were calculated to be 167 Ma (UE-A), 164 Ma (UE-C), 167 Ma (UE-D), and 167 Ma (UE-E), respectively. The samples of the UE-A, UE-D, and UE-E dikes showed very similar ages. The UE-C dike shows the youngest age, which is consistent with the results of the relative age in the outcrops and major element analysis. Therefore, the granite dikes intruded into the Middle Jurassic (approximately 167 and 164 Ma), coinciding with those of the Gyeonggi Massif, where the Middle Jurassic plutons are geographically widely distributed. This result indicates that the wide occurrence of the Middle Jurassic plutons on the Gyeonggi Massif was formed as a result of igneous activity moving in the northwest direction with the shallower subduction angle of the subducting oceanic plate during the Jurassic.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.241-259
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• 2022

In general, the REE were produced by mining conventional deposits, such as the carbonatite or the clay-hosted REE deposits. However, because of the recent demand increase for REE in modern industries, unconventional REE deposits emerged as a necessary research topic. Among the unconventional REE recovery methods, the REE-bearing coal deposits are recently receiving attentions. R-types generally have detrital originations from the bauxite deposits, and show LREE enriched REE patterns. Tuffaceous-types are formed by syngenetic volcanic activities and following input of volcanic ash into the basin. This type shows specific occurrence of the detrital volcanic ash-driven minerals and the authigenic phosphorous minerals focused at narrow horizon between coal seams and tonstein layers. REE patterns of tuffaceous-types show flat shape in general. Hydrothermal-types can be formed by epigenetic inflow of REE originated from granitic intrusions. Occurrence of the authigenic halogen-bearing phosphorous minerals and the water-bearing minerals are the specific characteristics of this type. They generally show HREE enriched REE patterns. Each type of REE-bearing coal deposits may occur by independent genesis, but most of REE-bearing coal deposits with high REE concentrations have multiple genesis. For the case of the US, the rare earth oxides (REO) with high purity has been produced from REE-bearing coals and their byproducts in pilot plants from 2018. Their goal is to supply about 7% of national REE demand. For the coal deposits in Korea, lignite layers found in Gyungju-Yeongil coal fields shows coexistence of tuff layers and coal seams. They are also based in Tertiary basins, and low affection from compaction and coalification might resulted into high-REE tuffaceous-type coal deposits. Thus, detailed geologic researches and explorations for domestic coal deposits are required.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.77-95
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• 2022

The Gonamsan gabbroic complex in the Pocheon area, northwestern region of South Korea consists of a variety types of gabbroic rocks and associated Fe-Ti oxide deposits caused by magmatic differentiation. Post-magmatic intrusions (i.e., gabbroic pegmatite and pyroxene-apatite-zircon rocks) partly intruded into the gabbroic rocks. The gabbroic pegmatite occurs in monzodiorite and oxide gabbro of the complex, intimately and spatially associated with high-grade lenticular Fe-Ti oxide mineralization. The pegmatite can be subdivided into plagioclase-amphibole and pyroxene-olivine pegmatite, in which the contact surface is sharp. The plagioclase-amphibole pegmatite comprises plagioclase and amphibole, with lesser amount of pyroxene, ilmenite, sphene, apatite, and biotite. The pegmatite shows plagioclase-amphibole intergranular texture, in which the open space formed by large plagioclase laths (An_2-26Ab_72-98Or_0-2) are infilled by amphibole. The pyroxene-olivine pegmatite is dark gray to black in color and also contains magnetite, ilmenite, spinel, apatite, and calcite as a minor component. The pyroxene (En_35-36Fs_8-9Wo₅₅) and olivine (Fo_84-85Fa_15-16) partly show a poikilitic texture defined by smaller euhedral olivine enclosed by coarser clinopyroxene. Fe-Ti oxide minerals consist mainly of magnetite and ilmenite that are found interstitially to earlier formed silicates. Subsequently, they are encompassed by reaction rim (almost of amphibole and biotite) along the boundary with surrounding silicate minerals. Under the microscope, magnetite contains a lot of oxyexsolved ilmenite (trellis type) and spinel, and thereby is weakly enriched in magnetite-compatible elements such as Ti, Al, Mg, and V. The structure and textures at the contact zone as well as mineralogical disequilibrium between gabbroic pegmatite and the host gabbroic rocks suggest that the pegmatite may form as a result of accumulation from Fe-rich melt (or liquid) that occurred somewhere rather than in situ form from the host gabbroic rock during the magmatic differentiation. Consequently, the preliminary study suggests that further study on the post-magmatic activities can not only help us improve our understanding on magmatic fractionation but also provide critical information on Fe-Ti oxide mineralization in gabbroic rocks resulting from the magmatic differentiation.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.611-625
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• 2022

One of the applications of geomagnetic paleo-secular variation (PSV) is the age dating of archeological remains (i.e., the archeomagnetic dating technique). This application requires the local model of PSV that reflects non-dipole fields with regional differences. Until now, the tentative Korean paleosecular variation (t-KPSV) calculated based on JPSV (SW Japanese PSV) has been applied as a reference curve for individual archeomagnetic directions in Korea. However, it is less reliable due to regional differences in the non-dipole magnetic field. Here, we present PSV curves for AD 1 to 600, corresponding to the Korean Three Kingdoms (including the Proto Three Kingdoms) Period, using the results of archeomagnetic studies in the Korean Peninsula and published research data. Then we compare our PSV with the global geomagnetic prediction model and t-KPSV. A total of 49 reliable archeomagnetic directional data from 16 regions were compiled for our PSV. In detail, each data showed statistical consistency (N > 6, 𝛼₉₅ < 7.8°, and k > 57.8) and had radiocarbon or archeological ages in the range of AD 1 to 600 years with less than ±200 years error range. The compiled PSV for the initial six centuries (KPSV0.6k) showed declination and inclination in the range of 341.7° to 20.1° and 43.5° to 60.3°, respectively. Compared to the t-KPSV, our curve revealed different variation patterns both in declination and inclination. On the other hand, KPSV0.6k and global geomagnetic prediction models (ARCH3K.1, CALS3K.4, and SED3K.1) revealed consistent variation trends during the first six centennials. In particular, the ARCH3K.1 showed the best fitting with our KPSV0.6k. These results indicate that contribution of the non-dipole field to Korea and Japan is quite different, despite their geographical proximity. Moreover, the compilation of archeomagnetic data from the Korea territory is essential to build a reliable PSV curve for an age dating tool. Lastly, we double-check the reliability of our KPSV0.6k by showing a good fitting of newly acquired age-controlled archeomagnetic data on our curve.

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.367-376
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• 2022

This study is a preliminary step to understand the reaction between various liquids and zeolite in the subduction zone environment. Stilbite, NaCa₄(Al₉Si₂₇)O₇₂·28(H₂O), was selected and high pressure study was conducted on compressional behavior by the pressure-transmitting medium (PTM). Water and NaHCO₃ solution that can exist in the subduction zone was used as PTM, and samples were pressurized from ambient to a maximum of 2.5 GPa. Below 1.0 GPa, both experiments show a low linear compressibility in the range of 0.001 to 0.004 GPa^-1 and a high bulk modulus of 220(1) GPa. This is presumably because the structure of the stilbite becomes very dense due to insertion of water molecules or cations into the channel. On the other hand, at 1.0 GPa or higher, the trends of the two experiments are different. In the water run, the linear compressibility of the c-axis is increased to 0.006(1) GPa^-1. In the NaHCO₃ run, the linear compressibility of the b- and c-axis is increased to 0.006(1) GPa^-1. The bulk modulus after 1.0 GPa shows values of 40(1) and 52(7) GPa in water and NaHCO₃ run, respectively, confirming that stilbite becomes more compressible than that before 1.0 GPa. It is caused by the migration of cations and water molecules inside the channel, as the water molecules in the PTM start to freeze and stop to insert toward the channel at 1.0 GPa or more. In the NaHCO₃ run, it is assumed that the distribution of extra-framework species inside the structure is changed by substitution of the Na⁺ cation. It can be expected from tendency of the relative intensity ratio of the (001) and (020) peaks which show a different from that of the water run.

• 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.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.103-113
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• 2023

The river confluence is a section in which two rivers with different topographical and hyrodynamic characteristics are combined into one, and it is a section in which rapid flow, inflow of sediments, and hydrological topographic changes occur. In the confluence section, the flow of fluid occurs due to the difference in density due to the type of material or temperature difference, which is called a density flow. It is necessary to accurately measure and observe the confluence section including a certain section of the main stream and tributaries in order to understand the mixing behavior of the water body caused by the density difference. A comprehensive analysis of this water mixture can be obtained by obtaining flow field and flow rate information, but there is a limit to understanding the mixing of water bodies with different physical properties and water quality characteristics of rivers flowing with stratigraphic flow. Therefore, this study attempts to grasp the density flow through the water temperature distribution in the confluence section. Among the extensive data of the river, vertical data and water surface data were acquired, and through this, the stratification phenomenon of the confluence was to be confirmed. It was intended to analyze the mixed pattern of the confluence by analyzing the water mixing pattern according to the water temperature difference using the vertical data obtained by measuring the repair volume by installing the ADCP on the side of the boat and measuring the real-time concentration using YSI. This study can supplement the analysis results of the existing water quality measurement in two dimensions. Based on the comparative analysis, it will be used to investigate the current status of stratified sections in the water layer and identify the mixing characteristics of the downstream section of the river.