• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.205-216
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• 2011

Mineral compositions of 69 southeastern Yellow Sea surface sediments collected at the Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute (KORDI) cruise in 2010, were determined using the quantitative X-ray diffraction analysis. Southeastern Yellow Sea surface sediments are composed of major minerals (quartz 49.1%, plagioclase 13.0% and alkali feldspar 9.3%), clay minerals, calcite, and aragonite. Illite (9.4%) is the most abundant clay mineral, chlorite (4.6%) is the second, and kaolinite (0.8%) is few. Quartz and alkali feldspar contents are high in coarse-grained sediments, whereas amphibole and clay mineral contents are high in fine-grained sediments. Quartz, plagioclase, alkali feldspar, chlorite, and kaolinite contents are higher, and illite content is lower in mud zone 1 corresponding to south margin of Central Yellow Sea Mud than in mud zone 2, a part of Southeastern Yellow Sea Mud. Difference of mineral composition between two mud zone suggests that source of fine sediment may be different in two mud zone and Southeastern Yellow Sea Mud might be largely supplied from the Keum and Youngsan rivers in southern part of the west coast in the Korean Peninsula.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.205-214
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• 2007

Marine environmental characteristics on the dinoflagellate cysts distribution in surface sediment of the southwest sea of Korea were investigated from 21 stations in September 2003, and 36 stations in June, 2004. The water mass characteristics indicated that the southwest sea of Korea is characterized by various oceanographic conditions due to coastal waters of Korea and China. The Tsushima warm currents and the cold bottom water of the Yellow Sea. Mud contents and chlorophyll a concentrations were higher in central region such as, Namhaedo, Yeosu and Goheung coast than in western region such as, Wando, Haenam and Jindo coast in the South Sea of Korea. A total of 35 taxa of dinoflagellate cysts were identified representing 21 genera, 33 species, 2 unidentified species. Cyst abundance ranged from 13 to 527 cysts $g-dry^{-1}$, showing higher abundance in the coastal areas than in western region of the South Sea of Korea. From the result of the PCA analysis, the distribution of dinoflagellate cysts was not only related to the different water masses which appeared in the southwestern sea but also to physical and biological parameters such as water temperature, light, surface sediment faces and phytoplankton biomass.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.235-247
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• 2019

The Central South Sea Mud (CSSM), developed in the Seomjin River estuary, is known to be supplied with sediments from Heuksan Mud Belt (HMB) and Seomjin River. However, in order to form a mud belt, more sediments must be supplied than supplied in the above areas. Therefore, research on additional sources should be conducted. In this study, clay minerals, major elements analyzes were performed on cores 16PCT-GC01 and 16PCT-GC03 in order to investigate the transition in the provenance and transport pathway of sediments in CSSM. The Huanghe sediments are characterized by higher smectite and the Changjiang sediments are characterized by higher illite. Korean river sediments contain more kaolinite and chlorite than those of chinese rivers. Korean river sediments have higher Al, Fe, K concentraion than Chinese river sediments and Chinese rivers have higher Ca, Mg, Na than those of Korean rivers. Therefore, clay minerals and major elements can be a useful indicator for provenance. Based on our results, CSSM can be divided into three sediment units. Unit 3, which corresponds to the lowstand stage, is interpreted that sediments from Huanghe were supplied to the study area by coastal or tidal currents. Unit 2, which corresponds to the transgressive stage, is interpreted to have a weaker Huanghe effect and a stronger Changjiang and Korean rivers effect. Unit 1, which corresponds to the highstand stage when the sea level is the same as present and current circulation system is formed, is interpreted that sediments from Changjiang and Korean rivers are supplied to the research area through the current.

• The Korean Journal of Quaternary Research
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2002

A total of 4 muddy sediment samples collected from the Central Yellow Sea were analyzed for chemical composition. The results are compared with the previously published Huanghe, Changjiang and Keum River geochemical data in order to understand provenance and sedimentation of fine-grained mud, and the sediment accumulation rates estimated. The sandy sediment facies is distributed in the eastern area, a patch of fine-grained mud exists in the western central prat, and the sandy mud and clay sedimentary facies shot. north to south zonal distribution in the central region. The content of calcium carbonate ranges from 2.8 to 10.5%, and its distributional trends to be more concentrated on the western muddy sediments near toward the China side rather than on the eastern sandy sediments. The accumulation rates obtained using Pb-210 geochronologies for the muddy sediments in the Central Yellow Sea showed ranges from 0.21 to 0.68 cm/yr or 0.176 to 0.714 g/$\textrm{cm}^2$. yr. The sedimentation rate from core CY96010 located in the eastern near side of Shandong Peninsula which is affected by the Huanghe River shows 0.68 cm/yr or 0.714 g/$\textrm{cm}^2$ . yr. The sediment cores CY96008 and CY96002 in the Central Yellow Sea, the estimated of sediment accumulation rates shows 0.21~0.23cm1yr or 0.176~0.220 9/$\textrm{cm}^2$.Vr respectively, which are much lower than above samples. These indicate that the muddy sediments in central area of the Yellow Sea may have received influence of the sediment discharge from the Huanghe River. The concentrations of Ca, Na, Sr, Ho, La, Tb, Ta and Ca/Ti ratio of the muddy sediments in the Central Yellow Sea are higher than those of the Changjiang sediments and lower than those of the Huanghe sediments. However, these element values showed similar concentration patterns than those of the Huanghe sediment. The element contents such as Fe, Ti, Nl, Co, Cr, Cu, Pb, Sc, Ce, Nd, Sm, Eu, Cd and Dy in the study area are higher than those of the Huanghe sediments and lower than the Changjiang River sediments, but these values showed close to resemblance content trends those of the Changjiang sediment. The concentration of Mn, K and Sr in sediments of the study area are similar to those of the Keum River and eastern Yellow Sea sediment. They are rich in Zn, Rb, Cd, U, Cs and Li than those of the other comparison legions. Therefore, the terrigenous materials sources of the muddy sediment in the Central Yellow Sea comes mainly from Huanghe River in the past and present, and also have party derived from the Changjiang and Keum River, while the biological deposit in this area are carried by the Yellow Sea Warm Current.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.67-77
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• 2006

Sedimentological investigations on surface and suspended sediments were performed in Masan Bay of the South Sea in order to reveal recent changes in depositional environments concerning anthropogenic influence. Surface sediments had been classified as 3 sediment facies: mud, slightly gravelly mud, and gravelly mud. In general, mud facies with more than 60% of silt is predominant and slightly gravelly mud facies occurs at the watercourse of bay's central area. The silt-dominant mud faices appears to be predominant before and after dredging. Temperature and salinity changes during one tidal cycle for each season suggest that water columns were stratified without vertical mixing regardless of the season due to weak intensity of tide from the effect of geographical features. The effect of freshwater discharge from the land seems to be insignificant. The strongest current was observed during ebb tide in spring and autumn while observed during flood tide in summer and winter. Net sediment flux (fs) and net suspended sediment transport (Qs) for suspended sediment were determined by remaining drift developed here. Net suspended sediment transport loads were seaward with $62.02{\times}10^3kgm^{-1}$, $31.84{\times}10^3kgm^{-1}$ in spring and fall, respectively, and landward with $18.23{\times}10^3kgm^{-1}$, $3.22{\times}10^3kgm^{-1}$ in summer and winter, respectively.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.265-274
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• 2019

To trace the provenance of fine-grained sediments in response to the growth and retreat of glaciers (i.e., Ross Ice Sheet) that affects the depositional process, various kinds of analyses including magnetic susceptibility, granulometry, and clay mineral composition with AMS ¹⁴C age dating were carried out using a gravity core KI-13-GC2 obtained from the Central Basin of the Ross Sea continental margin. The sediments mostly consist of silty mud to sand with ice-rafted debris, the sediment colors alternate repeatedly between light brown and gray, and the sedimentary structures are almost bioturbated with some faint laminations. Among the fine-grained clay mineral compositions, illite is highest (59.1-76.2%), followed by chlorite (12.4-21.4%), kaolinite (4.1-11.6%), and smectite (1.2-22.6%). Illite and chlorite originated from the Transantarctic mountains (metamorphic rocks and granitic rocks) situated to the south of the Ross Sea. Kaolinite might be supplied from the sedimentary rocks of Antarctic continent underneath the ice sheet. The provenance of smectite was considered as McMurdo volcanic group around the Victoria Land in the western part of the Ross Sea. Chlorite content was higher and smectite content was lower during the glacial periods, although illite and kaolinite contents are almost consistent between the glacial and interglacial periods. The glacial increase of chlorite content may be due to more supply of the reworked continental shelf sediments deposited during the interglacial periods to the Central Basin. On the contrary, the glacial decrease of smectite content may be attributed to less transport from the McMurdo volcanic group to the Central Basin due to the advanced ice sheet. Although the source areas of the clay minerals in the Central Basin have not changed significantly between the interglacial and glacial periods, the transport pathways and delivery mechanism of the clay minerals were different between the glacial and interglacial periods in response to the growth and retreat of Ross Ice Sheet in the Ross Sea.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.203-215
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• 2006

Field observations on the spatio-temporal distribution of organic matter of the surface sediment were carried out at 15 stations in the central parts of the South Sea of Korea from April 2002 to January 2003. The range of water temperature and salinity in bottom waters, mud content and water content of surface sediment were $8.06{\sim}23.35^{\circ}C,\;29.20{\sim}34.51\;psu,\;71.2{\sim}99.9%$ and $38.7{\sim}68.9%$, respectively. Measured parameters on the surface sediments of ignition loss (IL), chemical oxygen demand (CODs), phaeopigment, particulate organic carbon (POC) and particulate organic nitrogen (PON) also ranged in $3.9{\sim}l2.5%,\;9.60{\sim}44.05\;mgO_2/g-dry,\;1.58{\sim}29.51\;{\mu}g/g-dry,\;3.12{\sim}13.01\;mgC/g-dry$ and $0.49{\sim}2.00\;mgN/g-dry$, respectively. The spatio-temporal distribution of organic matter demonstrated higher concentrations offshore than at lesions near the coastal line. Higher concentrations occurred in the summer and spring. The results indicated that the origin of organic matter in surface sediments in the central part of the South Sea was autochthonous rather than allocthonous because the organic matter had an average C/N ratio of 6.44 (${\pm}0.51$). However, the composition of autochthonous organic matter was mainly derived from detritus rather than living phytoplankton, which was Indicated by the results of the POC/phaeopigment ratio. A principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that 73.2% of the variability in the data was described by two factors: 1) an 'environmental factor concerning the accumulation of materials (57.3%)' and 2) 'origin of organic matter and the composition by primary production (15.9%)'. The sedimentary environment in the central part of the South Sea was divided into four regions from the factor score of the PCA by the concentrations of organic matter and the composition ratio of organic matters from phytoplankton in surface sediments.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.589-599
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• 2014

This study selected optimal sites in Myeongsasimni located in west coast of Korea for stratigraphic research containing extreme climate event during quaternary period by spatio-temporal analyses of changes in sedimentary environment and land use employing 1918 topographic map, 2000 digital terrain map, 1976 and 2012 air photographies. The study area shows no significant changes in topographic characteristics that hilly areas with relatively large variations in elevation are distributed over north and south part of the study area, and sand dues are developed along the coast line. Moreover, flat low lying areas are located at the back side of the sand dues. The movement of surface run off and sediment loads shows two major trends of inland direction flow from back sides of sand dunes and outland direction flow from high terrains inland, and the two flows merge into the stream located in the center of the study area. Two sink with individual area of $0.2km^2$ are observed in Yongjeong-ri and Jaryong-ri which are located in south central part and south part of the study area, respectively. In addition, sea level change simulation reveals that $3.4km^2$ and $3.64km^2$ are inundated with 3 m of sea level rise in 1918 and 2000, respectively, and it would contribute to chase sea level change records preserved in stratigraphy. The inundated areas overlaps well with sink areas where it indicates the low lying areas located in south cental and south part of the study area are identical for sediment accumulation. The areas with minimal human impact on sediment records over last 100 years are $3.51km^2$ distributed over central and south part of the study area with the land use changes of mud and rice field in 1918 to rice field in 2012. The candidate sites of $0.15km^2$ in central part and $0.09km^2$ in south part are identified for preferable locations of geologic record of extreme climate events during quaternary period based on the overlay analysis of optimal sedimentary environment and land use changes.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.39 no.1 s.176
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• pp.83-93
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• 2006

The Kita-Yamato Trough is characterized by a SW-NE trending narrow graben between the Yamato Bank and the Kita-Yamato Bank in the central East Sea/Japan Sea (ES/JS). Core 20EEZ-1 was obtained in the flat summit of a small ridge from the southwest Kita-Yamato Trough. The sedimentation was mainly controlled by the supply of hemipelgic sediments and substantial tephras from explosive volcanic eruptions of the Quaternary volcanoes. The aim of this study is to reconstruct the tephrostratigraphy from the marine sediments collected from the Kita-Yamato Trough and to provide the atmosphere and ocean conditions during the explosive volcanic eruptions. According to the detailed tephrostratigraphy and lithofacies records, the core sediments were deposited during the last marine isotope stage (MIS) 7. The core consists of four lithofacies, idetified as, oxidized mud (OM), crudely laminated mud (CLM) and bioturbated mud (BM), interbedded with coarse-grained tephra (TP). The major element geochemistry and stratigraphic positions of seven tephra layers suggest that they originated from the Aira caldera in Kyushu area among the Japanese islands (AT tephra; 29.24 ka), unknown submarine volcano in the south Korea Plateau (SKP-I; MIS 3, SKP-II; MIS 4, SKP-IV; boundary between MIS 6 and MIS 5e, SKP-V; MIS 6, respectively), and the Baegdusan volcano in the Korean Peninsula (B-KY1; ca. 130 ka, B-KY2; ca. 196 ka). The absence of tephras originated trom Ulleung Island in core 20EEZ-l suggest that the tephras had not been transported into the Kita-Yamato Trough by atmosphere conditions during the eruptions. On the other hand, the B-KYI and the B-KY2 tephras derived from the Baegdusan volcano were founded in the Kita-Yamato Trough by a presence of prevailing westerly winds during the eruptions. Furthermore, the SKP tephras were characterized by the transport across the air-water interface, causing quickly thrust of raising eruption plumes from subaqueous explosive eruptions. Surface currents may play an important role in controlling the distribution patterns of the SKP tephras to distal areas. The tephrostratigraphic study in the Kita-Yamato Trough provides the important chronostratigraphic marker horizons and the detailed atmosphere and ocean conditions during the explosive eruptions.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.78-91
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• 2015

Macrobenthic community was studied at 87 stations including intertidal and subtidal area in Yoja Bay, south coast of Korea in summer season of July 2001. Duplicate sediment samples were taken using a van Veen grab ($0.1m^2$) in each station. Mud facies of the sediments were widly distributed in the bay. And relatively high content of sand was shown in the Bulgyo-cheon stream estuary. A total of 274 species was occurred with a mean density of $2,346ind./m^2$ and a mean biomass of $78.2g/m^2$. The polychaetes were species- and density-dominant faunal group with a total of 122 species (44.5% of the total number of species), and mean density of $1,543ind./m^2$ (65.8% of the mean density). Meanwhile, molluscs were biomass-dominant faunal group with $44.4g/m^2$. Bio-Env. analysis showed that the combination of bottom salinity and sand content of the surface sediments was highly correlated to the major macrobenthic communities. The macrobenthic species number, decreasing toward inner bay from mouth of the bay, was significantly correlated to the sediment environmental variables and bottom water salinity. The spatial distribution of abundance showed significant correlation to the sand and mud contents and mean grain size of the surface sediments. Major dominant species were Minuspio japonica (polychaete) with a mean density of $1,167ind./m^2$ at upper part of the bay where salinity was low and Eriopisella sechellensis (amphipod) with $152ind./m^2$ in central part of the bay. Species diversity (H') was $3.0{\leq}$ in the mouth part of the bay and ranged 2.0-3.0 in the inner part of the bay, which showed a significant positive correlation to bottom salinity. Total number of species also showed significant correlations to the sediment composition and bottom salinity. Based on the cluster analysis the macrobenthic community of the bay was classified into five station groups from the bay mouth toward the inner part of the bay depending on the species composition. From the SIMPER analysis Minuspio japonica, Eriopisella sechellensis and Sternaspis scutata mainly contributed to the classification of station group. These results suggested that the macrobenthic communities of the bay were mainly influenced by bottom salinity together with sediment composition, and that the studies of spatial distributions of major dominant species and benthic communities should be conducted continuously to monitor the Yeoja Bay benthic environment.