• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.393-400
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• 2018

Despite some skeptical views on the possibility of earthquake prediction, observation and evaluation of precursory changes have been continued throughout the world. In Korea, the public concern on the earthquake prediction has been increased after 2016 $M_L5.8$ and 2017 $M_L5.4$ earthquakes occurred in Gyeongju and Pohang, the southeastern part in Korea, respectively. In this study, the abnormal increase of groundwater level was observed before the 2016 $M_L5.8$ Gyeongju earthquake in a borehole located in 52 km away from the epicenter. The well was installed in the Yangsan fault zone, and equipped for the earthquake surveillance. The abnormal change in the well would seem to be a precursor, considering the hydrogeological condition and the observations from previous studies. It is necessary to set up a specialized council to support and evaluate the earthquake prediction and related researches for the preparation of future earthquake hazards.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.80-86
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• 2016

Earthquakes of M5.1, M5.8 and M4.5 occurred in September 12 and 19 respectively in Gyeongju, Gyeongbuk Province. Theses earthquakes inflated fears of people and highlighted necessity of detailed countermeasures because we have considered our country is safe to earthquakes. In the meanwhile, earthquake also impacts groundwater and thus it was recently reported that the Gyeongju Earthquakes affected groundwater there. This study evaluates daily groundwater data collected from five national groundwater monitoring stations (Geoncheon, Sannae, Oedong, Yangbuksin, Cheonbuk) in Gyeongju. The analysis revealed that only groundwater level of bedrock monitoring well hosted in andesite exhibited earthquake impact while no wells in the other four stations hosted in sedimentary rocks showed substantial responses to the earthquakes. This may be derived from the difference of seismic velocity of hosting rocks as well as epicenter distance. Special interest on groundwater monitoring is required to predict earthquakes as precursory phenomena.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.185-192
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• 2017

A sequence of earthquakes with the main shock $M_L$ 5.8 occurred on September 12 2016 in the Gyeongju area. The main shock was the largest earthquakes in the southern part of the Korean peninsula since the instrumental seismic observation began in the peninsula in 1905 and clearly demonstrated that the Yangsan fault is seismically active. The mean focal depth of the foreshock, main shock, and aftershock of the Gyeongju earthquakes estimated by the crustal model of single layer of the Korean peninsula without the Conrad discontinuity turns out to be 12.9 km, which is 2.8 km lower than that estimated based on the IASP91 reference model with the Conrad discontinuity. The distribution of the historical and instrumental earthquakes in the Gyeongju area indicates that the Yangsan fault system comprising the main Yangsan fault and its subsidiary faults is a large fracture zone. The epicenters of the Gyeongju earthquakes show that a few faults of the Yangsan fault system are involved in the release of the strain energy accumulated in the area. That the major earthquakes of Gyeongju earthquakes occurred not on the surface but below 10 km depth suggests the necessity of the study of the distribution of deep active faults of the Yangsan fault system. The magnitude of maximum earthquake of the Gyeongju area estimated based on the earthquake data of the area turns out to be 7.3. The recurrence intervals of the earthquakes over magnitudes 5.0, 6.0 and 7.0 based on the earthquake data since 1978, which is the most complete data in the peninsula, are estimated as 80, 670, and 5,900 years, respectively. The September 2016 Gyeongju earthquakes are basically intraplate earthquakes not related to the Great East Japan earthquake of March 11 2011 which is interplate earthquake.

• Journal of Korea Planning Association
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.148-158
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of earthquake on apartment prices. Many studies have been done analyzing the relationship between natural hazards and residential property prices. Most studies have shown that natural hazards have an negative effect on residential property prices, but some studies have shown that natural hazards have an positive effect on residential property prices. These conflicting analysis result from the lack of considering natural hazard frequency at the analysis site. According to literature reviews risk avoidance tendency are already inherent in prices, thus distorting the relationship between natural hazards and prices. That is, in order to analyze the impact of natural hazards on residential property prices, analysis must be carried out in areas where there has not suffered natural hazard for a long time or where there has been no damage before. Nevertheless, previous studies analyzed areas frequently affected by natural hazards. Gyeongju has been recognized as a safe area from earthquake in the past, an 5.8 magnitude earthquake occurred in September 2016. Analysis results focusing on Gyeongju Earthquake case has shown that the earthquake has affected decrease of apartment prices in hazardous areas, and after earthquake apartment prices have risen over time.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.13-22
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• 2021

The ML 5.8 earthquake shocked Gyeongju, Korea, at 11:32:55 UTC on September 12, 2016. One year later, on the afternoon of November 15, 2017, the ML 5.4 earthquake occurred in Pohang, South Korea. The earthquakes injured many residents, damaged buildings, and affected the economy of Gyeongju and Pohang. The damage proxy maps (DPMs) were generated from Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery by comparing pre- and co-events interferometric coherences to identify anomalous changes that indicate damaged by the earthquakes. DPMs manage to detect coherence loss in residential and commercial areas in both Gyeongju and Pohang earthquakes. We found that our results show a good correlation with the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) report with Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) scale values of more than VII (seven). The color scale of Sentinel-1 DPMs indicates an increasingly significant change in the area covered by the pixel, delineating collapsed walls and roofs from the official report. The resulting maps can be used to assess the distribution of seismic damage after the Gyeongju and Pohang earthquakes and can also be used as inventory data of damaged buildings to map seismic vulnerability using machine learning in Gyeongju or Pohang.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.512-518
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• 2018

This article measured and analyzed the indoor radon concentrations at one university building in Gyeongju, Republic of Korea, to investigate if there is any relationship between earthquakes and indoor radon concentration. Since 12 September 2016, when two 5.1 and 5.8 magnitude earthquakes occurred, hundreds of aftershocks affected Gyeongju until January 2017. The measurements were made at the ground floor of the Energy Engineering Hall of Dongguk University in Gyeongju over a period between February 2016 and January 2017. The measurements were made with an RAD7 detector on the basis of the US Environmental Protection Agency measurement protocol. Each measurement was continuously made every 30 minutes over the measurement period every month. Among earthquakes with 2.0 or greater magnitude, the earthquakes whose occurrence timings fell into the measurement periods were screened for further analysis. We observed similar spike-like patterns between the indoor radon concentration distributions and earthquakes: a sudden increase in the peak indoor radon concentration 1-4 days before an earthquake, gradual decrease before the earthquake, and sudden drop on the day of the earthquake if the interval between successive earthquakes was moderately longer, for example, 3 days in this article.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.7_spc
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• pp.425-434
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• 2016

This study investigates important parameters used to determine an effective peak ground acceleration (EPGA) based on the characteristics of response spectra of historical earthquakes occurred at Korean peninsula. EPGAs are very important since they are implemented in the Korean Building Code for the seismic design of new structures. Recently, the Gyeongju earthquakes with the largest magnitude in earthquakes measured at Korea took place and resulted in non-structural and structural damage, which their EPGAs should need to be evaluated. This paper first describes the basic concepts on EPGAs and the EPGAs of the Gyeongju earthquakes are then evaluated and compared according to epicentral distances, site classes and directions of seismic waves. The EPGAs are dependant on normalizing factors and ranges of period on response spectrum constructed with the Gyeongju earthquake records. Using the normalizing factors and the ranges of period determined based on the characteristics of domestic response spectra, this paper draw a conclusion that the EPGAs are estimated to be about 30 % of the measured peak ground accelerations (PGA).

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.137-146
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• 2018

On September 12, 2016, the Gyeongju District was strongly shaken with M=5.8, which was the largest one since measured by the actual seismometer in Korea, and some buildings were damaged. The field survey of reinforced concrete school buildings in the affected area was carried out, and their residual seismic capacities(R) were estimated based on the Japanese Standard for post-earthquake damage evaluation. In this study, the M school, which was greatly damaged by the 2016 Gyeongju Earthquake, was selected, and its damage level was evaluated on the basis of the Japanese Standard. The seismic capacity of the M school was also evaluated using the nonlinear dynamic analysis, and relationships between its damage level and seismic capacity was also conducted to investigate causes of earthquake damage. The damage level of M school was classified into light with R=88.2%. The result of the dynamic analysis agreed reasonably well with the damage of M school sustained by the 2016 Gyeongju earthquake. This will provide fundamental data for earthquake preparedness measures, such as the seismic rehabilitation of low-rise reinforced concrete buildings in Korea.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.277-286
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• 2017

On September 12, 2016, Gyeongju earthquake occurred. Its local magnitude was announced to be $M_L=5.8$ by Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). Ground motion data recorded at KMA, EMC and KERC stations was obtained from their data bases. From the data, horizontal and vertical response spectra, and V/H ratio were calculated. The horizontal spectrum was defined as geometric mean spectrum, GMRotI50. From the statistical analysis of the geometric mean spectra, a mean plus one standard deviation spectrum in lognormal distribution is obtained. Regression analysis is performed on this curve to determine the shape of spectrum including transition periods. Applying the same procedure, the shape and transition periods of vertical spectrum was obtained. These results were compared with the Korean standard design spectra, which were developed from domestic and overseas intraplate earthquake records. The response spectra of Gyeongju earthquake were found to be almost identical with the newly proposed design spectra. Even the V/H ratios showed good agreement. These results confirmed that the method adopted when developing the standard design spectra were valid and the developed design spectra were reliable.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.129-135
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• 2021

After the manual shutdown of the Wolseong nuclear power plant due to an earthquake in Gyeongju in 2016, anxiety about the earthquake safety of nuclear power plants has become a major social issue. The shear wall structure used as a major structural element in nuclear power plants is widely used as a major structural member because of its high resistance to horizontal loads such as earthquakes. However, due to the complexity of the structure, it is challenging to predict the dynamic characteristics of the structure. In this study, a three-story shear wall structure is fabricated, and the in-structure response characteristics of the shear wall structure are evaluated through shaking table tests. The test is performed using the Gyeongju earthquake that occurred in 2016, and the response characteristics due to the domestic earthquake are evaluated.