• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.24-33
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• 1999

Differential Strain Analysis (DSA) was performed to examine the characteristics of microcracks for the granites from two sites, Noeunri and Gunggiri. The results of the DSA are taken every 5 MPa for the first 50 MPa, then every 10 MPa to a pressure of 100 MPa, and then every 15 MPa to a pressure of 250 MPa. Differential strain was measured on core samples in three horizontal directions, using $45^{\circ}$ rosette strain gages, and one vertical direction. The gradients of cumulative crack strain curves in one vertical direction and three horizontal directions differed from one another, indicating anisotropic crack development in the sample. The magnitude of vertical cumulative crack strain was the highest, indicating that the microcracks from the studied rock are generally developed in horizontal direction. Under the pressure of 240 Mpa, vertical cumulative crack strains for samples N-1, N-2, G-1, and G-2 were $74{\times}l0^{-6}~820{\times}l0^{-6},\; 190{\times}l0^{-6}~460{\times}l0^{-6},\; 329{\times}l0^{-6}~836{\times}l0^{-6},\; 833{\times}10^{-6}~1,592{\times}l0^{-6}$, respectively. Under the pressure of 25O MPa, volumetric crack strains for Gunggiri and Noeunri ranged from $1,804{\times}10^{-6}\; to\; 3,936{\times}10^{-6}\; and \;from,\; 1, 125{\times}10^{-6}\; to\; 1,457{\times}10^{-6}$, respectively. Therefore, the amount of microcrackes produced were more distributed in Gunggiri than Noeunri. The ratio of a maximum crack strain to a minimum crack strain was calculated to find the orientations between microcracks and the rift plane of the granites. Generally, the ratio has very high values ranging from 2.42 to 3.43, which suggests most microcracks to be intragranular cracks with the regular orientations. These results indicate that the preferred orientations of microcracks in the granites were almost parallel to the rift plane of the granites.