• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.41-50
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• 2010

We have developed an in-situ benthic chamber (BelcI) for use in coastal studies that can be deployed from a small boat. It is expected that BelcI will be useful in studying the benthic boundary layer because of its flexibility. BelcI is divided into three main areas: 1) frame and body chamber, 2) water sampler, and 3) stirring devices, electric controller, and data acquisition technology. To maximize in-situ use, the frame is constructed from two layers that consist of square cells. All electronic parts (motor controller, pA meter, data acquisition, etc.) are low-power consumers so that the external power supply can be safely removed from the system. The hydrodynamics of BelcI, measured by PIV (particle image velocimetry), show a typical "radial-flow impeller" pattern. Mixing time of water in the chamber is about 30 s, and shear velocity ($u^*$) near the bottom layer was calculated at $0.32\;cm\;s^{-1}$. Measurements of diffusivity boundary layer thickness showed a range of $180-230\;{\mu}m$. Sediment oxygen consumption rate, measured in-situ，was $84\;mmol\;O_2\;m^{-2}\;d_{-1}$, more than two times higher than on-board incubation results. Benthic fluxes assessed from in-situ incubation were estimated as follows: nitrate + nitrite = $0.18\;{\pm}\;0.07\;mmol\;m^{-2}\;d^{-1}$ ammonium $23\;{\pm}\;1\;mmol\;m^{-2}\;d^{-1}$ phosphate = $0.09\;{\pm}\;0.02\;mmol\;m^{-2}\;d^{-1}$ and silicate = $23\;{\pm}\;1\;mmol\;m^{-2}\;d^{-1}$.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.52-59
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• 2008

We have developed a new deep-towed marine DC resistivity survey system. It was designed to detect the top boundary of the methane hydrate zone, which is not imaged well by seismic reflection surveys. Our system, with a transmitter and a 160-m-long tail with eight source electrodes and a receiver dipole, is towed from a research vessel near the seafloor. Numerical calculations show that our marine DC resistivity survey system can effectively image the top surface of the methane hydrate layer. A survey was carried out off Joetsu, in the Japan Sea, where outcrops of methane hydrate are observed. We successfully obtained DC resistivity data along a profile ${\sim}3.5\;km$ long, and detected relatively high apparent resistivity values. Particularly in areas with methane hydrate exposure, anomalously high apparent resistivity was observed, and we interpret these high apparent resistivities to be due to the methane hydrate zone below the seafloor. Marine DC resistivity surveys will be a new tool to image sub-seafloor structures within methane hydrate zones.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-18
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• 2023

The East Sea, one of the regions where the most rapid warming is occurring, is known to have important implications for the response of the ocean to future climate changes because it not only reacts sensitively to climate change but also has a much shorter turnover time (hundreds of years) than the ocean (thousands of years). However, the processes underlying changes in seawater characteristics at the sea's deep and abyssal layers, and meridional overturning circulation have recently been examined only after international cooperative observation programs for the entire sea allowed in-situ data in a necessary resolution and accuracy along with recent improvement in numerical modeling. In this review, previous studies on the physical characteristics of seawater at deeper parts of the East Sea, and meridional overturning circulation are summarized to identify any remaining issues. The seawater below a depth of several hundreds of meters in the East Sea has been identified as the Japan Sea Proper Water (East Sea Proper Water) due to its homogeneous physical properties of a water temperature below 1℃ and practical salinity values ranging from 34.0 to 34.1. However, vertically high-resolution salinity and dissolved oxygen observations since the 1990s enabled us to separate the water into at least three different water masses (central water, CW; deep water, DW; bottom water, BW). Recent studies have shown that the physical characteristics and boundaries between the three water masses are not constant over time, but have significantly varied over the last few decades in association with time-varying water formation processes, such as convection processes (deep slope convection and open-ocean deep convection) that are linked to the re-circulation of the Tsushima Warm Current, ocean-atmosphere heat and freshwater exchanges, and sea-ice formation in the northern part of the East Sea. The CW, DW, and BW were found to be transported horizontally from the Japan Basin to the Ulleung Basin, from the Ulleung Basin to the Yamato Basin, and from the Yamato Basin to the Japan Basin, respectively, rotating counterclockwise with a shallow depth on the right of its path (consistent with the bottom topographic control of fluid in a rotating Earth). This horizontal deep circulation is a part of the sea's meridional overturning circulation that has undergone changes in the path and intensity. Yet, the linkages between upper and deeper circulation and between the horizontal and meridional overturning circulation are not well understood. Through this review, the remaining issues to be addressed in the future were identified. These issues included a connection between the changing properties of CW, DW, and BW, and their horizontal and overturning circulations; the linkage of deep and abyssal circulations to the upper circulation, including upper water transport from and into the Western Pacific Ocean; and processes underlying the temporal variability in the path and intensity of CW, DW, and BW.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.71-80
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• 2001

To understand paleoceanographic environmental changes in the Esat Sea during the transitional period between Holocene and last glacial maximum, geochemical high resolution study was conducted by using a piston core(95PC-1) samples collected from the southernmost part of the Ulleung Basin. Geochemical results reveal that major distinctive paleoceanographic variations in transitional period are prominent. Major elemental concentrations show distinctive variations between glacial and Holocene suggesting changes in sediment supply. $TiO_2/Al_2O_3$ ratio of the sediment indicates different sediment composition between Holocene and glacial period. The content of total organic carbon ranging from 0.5% to 4% during transitional period. These vslues showed 2-4 times and two times higher than those of last glacial and Holocene, respectively. The C/N ratios deduced from organic matters exceed10 during transitional period suggesting terrigenous organic matter are supplied from continent, especially during last glacial maximum. Carbonate contents are relatively stable during Holocene and last glacial maximum with gradual decrease during glacial period with high fluctuation during transitional period. The variations of chemical index of weathering (CIW) also show a distinctive variation between glacial and Holocene, which is coincident with those of carbonate and organic carbon. The grain size distribution indicates that the difference content of silt fraction during Holocene and glacial period is closely related with climatic effect during glacial period. Therefore geochemical differences in sediment composition between Holocene and last glacial maximum is thought to be related to paleoceanographic, sea-level change and local paleoclimatic changes.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.68-77
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• 2002

We investigated the outbreak, maintenance, and decline of the red tide dominated by C. polykrikoides in the coastal waters off Southern Korea from August to October, 2000, by combining field data and NOAA satellite images. In general, the C. polykrikoides blooms, which have occured annually in Korean coastal waters from 1995 to 1999, initiate between late August and early September around Narodo Island and expand to the whole area of the southern coast. However, initiation and short-term change of the bloom of 2000 were quite different from the pattern observed previously. In mid-August, thermal fronts in sea surface temperature(SST) were formed: 1) between the Tsushima Warm Current Water (TWCW) and the Southern Korean Coastal Waters (SKCW), 2) between the jindo cold water mass and the southwestern coastal waters, and 3) between the upwelled cold waters in the southeast coast and the offshore warm waters. Free-living cells of C. polykrikoides were concentrated in these frontal regions. In late August, the thermal front TWCW-SKCW approached the mouth of Yeosuhae Bay where Seomjin River water and anthropogenic pollutants from the Industrial Complex of Gwangyang Bay are discharged. In the blooms of 2000 initiated in Yeosuhae Bay in late August, the dominant species, C. polykrikoides, co-occured with Alexandrum tamarense, Gymnodinium mikimotoi, Skeletonema coastatum, and Chaetoceros spp. Two typhoons, 'Prapiroon' and 'Saomai' during and the C. polykrikoides bloom probably affected the abundance of this species. After the former typhoon passed the Korean Peninsula, cell growth of C. polykrikoides was maximal, but after the latter typhoon, the C. polykrikoides bloom disappeared (20 September). On 5 October, the blooms dominated by C. polykrikoides broke out within the coastal waters of Jinhae Bay and Hansan-Keoje Bay. NOAA satellite images showed that the isothermal line of 22$^{\circ}C$ extended into Jinhae Bay. In this bloom, C. polykrikoides also occurred simultaneously with Akashiwo sanguinea(=Gym-nodinium sangunium), a common red tide-forming dinoflagellate species in fall and winter in these coastal bays.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.267-281
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• 2019

Energetic mesoscale eddies in the East Sea (ES) associated with strong mesoscale variability impacting circulation and environments were statistically characterized by analyzing satellite altimeter data collected during 1993-2017 and in-situ data obtained from four cruises conducted between 2015 and 2017. A total of 1,008 mesoscale eddies were detected, tracked, and identified and then classified into 27 groups characterized by mean lifetime (L, day), amplitude (H, m), radius (R, km), intensity per unit area (EI, $cm^2/s^2/km^2$), ellipticity (e), eddy kinetic energy (EKE, TJ), available potential energy (APE, TJ), and direction of movement. The center, boundary, and amplitude of mesoscale eddies identified from satellite altimeter data were compared to those from the in-situ observational data for the four cases, yielding uncertainties in the center position of 2-10 km, boundary position of 10-20 km, and amplitude of 0.6-5.9 cm. The mean L, H, R, EI, e, EKE, and APE of the ES mesoscale eddies during the total period are $95{\pm}104$ days, $3.5{\pm}1.5cm$, $39{\pm}6km$, $0.023{\pm}0.017cm^2/s^2/km^2$, $0.72{\pm}0.07$, $23{\pm}21TJ$, and $588{\pm}250TJ$, respectively. The ES mesoscale eddies tend to move following the mean surface current rather than propagating westward. The southern groups (south of the subpolar front) have a longer L, larger H, R, and higher EKE, APE; and stronger EI than those of the northern groups and tend to move a longer distance following surface currents. There are exceptions to the average characteristics, such as the quasi-stationary groups (the Wonsan Warm, Wonsan Cold, Western Japan Basin Warm, and Northern Subpolar Frontal Cold Eddy groups) and short-lived groups with a relatively larger H, higher EKE, and APE and stronger EI (the Yamato Coastal Warm, Central Yamato Warm, and Eastern Japan Basin Coastal Warm eddy groups). Small eddies in the northern ES hardly resolved using the satellite altimetry data only, were not identified here and discussed with potential over-estimations of the mean L, H, R, EI, EKE, and APE. This study suggests that the ES mesoscale eddies 1) include newly identified groups such as the Hokkaido and the Yamato Rise Warm Eddies in addition to relatively well-known groups (e.g., the Ulleung Warm and the Dok Cold Eddies); 2) have a shorter L; smaller H, R, and lower EKE; and stronger EI and higher APE than those of the global ocean, and move following surface currents rather than propagating westward; and 3) show large spatial inhomogeneity among groups.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.81-92
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• 2001

According to analyses of high-resolution seismic profiles (air gun, sparker, and SBP) and a deep-drill core(YSDP 105) in the mid-eastern Yellow Sea, stratigraphic and geoacoustic models have been established and seismo-acoustic modeling has been fulfilled using ray tracing of finite element method. Stratigraphic model reflects seismo-, litho-, and chrono-stratigraphic sequences formed under a significant influence of Quaternary glacio-eustatic sea-level fluctuations. Each sequence consists of terrestrial to very-shallow-marine coarse-grained lowstand systems tract and tidal fine-grained transgressive to highstand systems tract. Based on mean grain-size data (121 samples) of the drill core, bulk density and P-wave velocity of depositional units have been inferred and extrapolated down to a depth of the recovery using the Hamilton's regression equations. As goo-acoustic parameters, the 121 pairs of bulk density and P-wave velocity have been averaged on each unit of the stratigraphic model. As a result of computer ray-tracing simulation of the subsurface strata, we have found that there are complex ray paths and many acoustic-shadow zones owing to the presence of irregular layer boundaries and low-velocity layers.

• 한국해양학회지
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.212-228
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• 1993

A chenier, about 860 m long, 30 to 60 m wide and 0.6∼1.6 m high, occurs on the upper muddy tidal flat in the Gomso bay, western coast of Korea, It consists of medium to fine sands and shells with small amounts of subangular gravels. Vertical sections across the chenier show gently landward dipping stratifications which include small-scale cross-bedded sets. the most probable source of the chenier is considered to be the intertidal sandy sediments. Vibracores taken along a line transversing the tidal flat reveal that the intertidal sand deposits are more than 5 m thick near the low-water line and become thinner toward the chenier. The most sand deposits are undertrain by tidal muds which occur behind the chenier as salt marsh deposits. C-14 age dating suggests that the sand deposits and the chenier are younger than about 1,800 years B.P. The chenier has originated from the intertidal sand shoals at the lower to mid sand flat, and has continuously moved landward. A series of aerial photographs (1967∼1989) reveal that intertidal sand shoals (predecessor of the western part of chenier) on the mid flat have continuously moved landward during the past two decades and ultimately attached to the eastern part of the chenier already anchored at the present position in the late 1960s. Repeated measurements (four times between 1991 and 1992) of morphological changes of the chenier indicate that the eastern two thirds of the chenier, mostly above the mean high water, has rarely moved whereas the western remainder below the mean high water, has moved continuously at a rate of 0.5 m/mo during the last two years (1991∼1992). This displacement rate has been considerably accelerated up to 1.0 m/mo in winter, and during a few days of typhoon in the summer of 1992 the displacement amounted to about 8∼11 m/mo for the entire chenier. these facts suggest that macro-tidal currents, coupled with winter-storm waves and infrequent strong typhoons, should play a major role for the formation and migration of chenier after 1,800 B.P., when the sea level already rose to the present position and thereafter remained constant.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.180-190
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• 2014

It has been customary to exclude top 10-20% of velocity profiles in the Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) measurement due to side lobe effects at the boundary. To better understand the mixing in the Yeongsan estuary, the freshwater advection speed (FAS) was recovered from highly contaminated ADCP data near the surface. The velocity profiles were measured by using ADCP at two stations in the Yeongsan estuary during August 2011: one was located in front of the Yeongsan estuarine dam and the other was deployed near Goha Island. The FAS was recovered from the ADCP data set by applying rigorous post-processing methods and compared with the sediment advection speed (SAS). The SAS was determined by the peak time difference of suspended sediment concentration between two stations in the channel, divided by the distance of two stations. The FAS and the SAS showed very similar value when the freshwater discharge was greater than $2.0{\times}10^7$ ton and the SAS was a bit greater when the freshwater discharge was smaller. Since the FAS was on average about 0.8 m/s greater than the velocity at 0.8 of water depth from the bottom, the net discharge, estimated with recovered FAS and integrated over water depth and tidal cycle, was directed seaward during the high discharge contrary to the onshore direction of the net discharge estimated with 0.8 of water depth from the bottom. Moreover, the velocity shear and Richardson number changed when the FAS was used. Thus, the importance of the true FAS is appreciated in the investigation of the surface layer stability. If currents, temperature and salinity were observed for longer time in the future, it could be possible to more accurately understand the formation and decay of stratification as well as the suspended sediment transport processes.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.13-26
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• 2001

Six ferromanganese crusts from the Lomilik and Litatfooki seamounts in the Marshall Islands were analyzed for texture, geochemistry and stratigraphy to delineate the paleoceanographic conditions. The crusts can be divided into three layers; 1) outermost massive layer (Layer 1), 2) middle porous Fe-oxides rich layer infllled with biointemal clasts (Layer 2), and 3) innermost massive layer cemented and/or replaced by carbonate fluoapatite (CFA) (Layer 3). The Layer 1 contains higher Mn, Co, Ni, and Mg than other two layers, and the Layer 2 was relatively more enriched in Fe, Al, Ti, Ba, Cu, and Zn. However, the Layer 3 shows higher Ca and P and lower Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni contents than overlying two layers. Based on the Co-chronometry, the crusts are postulated to have begun to grow from 56-31 Ma (early Eocene to Oligocene). The boundaries between layers 1 and 2, and layers 2 and 3 are dated to be 7-3 Ma and 26-14 Ma, respectively. High contents of Ca and P in Layer 3 clearly indicate that the layer had been phosphatized prior to the formation of Layer 2. Considering the well-preserved mjcrostructures in Layer 3, it is unlike that the crusts themselves were recrystallized in suboxic condition. Also, the lower Co concentrations in Layer 3 may imply that the Co supply was not constant during the formation of Layer 3. Layer 2, characterized by the porous texture, grew over Layer 3 during 26-9 Ma. Internal biogenic sediments including foraminifera within the original cavities and the enrichment of organophillic elements such as Ba, Cu, and Zn, suggest that Layer 2 have below high production regions. Also, high content of allumino silicate components may indicate increased terrigeneous input during the formation of Layer 2. The Layer 2. The Layer 1 has been subjected to little diagenetic influence since the Pliocene.