• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2006

Analyses of sedimentological and geochemical parameters from two radiocarbon-dated sediment cores (JM98-845-PC and JM98-818-PC) retrieved from the central part of Isfjorden, Svalbard, in the Arctic Sea, reveal detailed paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic histories over the last 15,000 radiocarbon years. The overconsolidated diamicton at the base of core JM98-845-PC is supposed to be a basal till deposited beneath pounding glacier that had advanced during the LGM (Last Glacial Maximum). Deglaciation of the fjord commenced after the glacial maximum, marked by the deposition of interlaminated sand and mud in the ice-proximal zone by subglacial meltwater discharge, and prevailed between 13,700 and 10,800 yr B.P. with enriched-terrigenous organic materials. A return to colder conditions occurred at around 10,800 yr B.P. with a drop in TOC content, which is probably coincident with the Younger Dryas event in the North Atlantic region. At this time, an abrupt decrease of TOC content as well as an increase in C/N ratio suggests enhanced terrigenous input due to the glacial readvance. A climatic optimum is recognized between 8,395 and 2,442 yr B.P., coinciding with 'a mid-Holocene climatic optimum' in Northern Hemisphere sites (e.g., the Laurentide Ice sheet). During this time, as the sea ice receded from the fjord, enhanced primary productivity occurred in open marine conditions, resulting in the deposition of organic-enriched pebbly mud with evidence of TOC maxima and C/N ratio minima in sediments. Fast ice also disappeared from the coast, providing the maximum of IRD (ice-rafted debris) input. Around 2,442 yr B.p. (the onset of Neoglacial), pebbly mud, characterized by a decrease in TOC content, reflects the formation of more extensive sea ice and fast ice, which might cause decreased primary productivity in the surface water, as evidenced by a decrease in TOC content. Our results provide evidence of climatic change on the Svalbard fjords that helps to refine the existence and timing of late Pleistocene and Holocene millennial-scale climatic events in the Northern Hemisphere.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.235-243
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• 2006

In this study, an experimental study on the sorption properties of uranium(VI) onto a bentonite colloid generated from Gyeongju bentonite which is a potential buffer material in a high-level radioactive waste repository was performed as a function of the pH and the ionic strength. The bentonite colloid prepared by separating a colloidal fraction was mainly composed of montmorillonite. The concentration and the size fraction of the prepared bentonite colloid measured using a gravitational filtration method was about 5100 ppm and 200-450 nm in diameter, respectively. The amount of uranium removed by the sorption reaction bottle walls, by precipitation, and by ultrafiltration was analyzed by carrying out some blank tests. The removed amount of uranium was found not to be significant except the case of ultrafiltration at 0.001 M $NaClO_4$. The ultrafiltration was significant in the lower ionic strength of 0.001 M $NaClO_4$ due to the cationic sorption onto the ultrafilter by a surface charge reversion. The distribution coefficient $K_d$ (or pseudo-colloid formation constant) of uranium(VI) for the bentonite colloid was about $10^4{\sim}10^7mL/g$ depending upon pH and ionic strength of $NaClO_4$ and the $K_d$ was highest in the neutral pH around 6.5. It is noted that the sorption of uranium(VI) onto the bentonite colloid is closely related with aqueous species of uranium depending upon geochemical parameters such as pH, ionic strength, and carbonate concentration. As a consequence, the bentonite colloids generated from a bentonite buffer can mobilize the uranium(VI) as a colloidal form through geological media due to their high sorption capacity.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2004.09a
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• pp.121-121
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• 2004

The groundwater in the Pocheon area occurs from both a fractured bedrock aquifer in igneous and metamorphic rocks and an alluvial aquifer with a thickness of <50 m, and forms a major source of domestic and agricultural water supply. In this study, we performed a hydrogeochemical study in order to identify the control of geochemical processes on groundwater quality. For this study, groundwater level and physicochemical parameters (EC, Eh, pH, alkalinity) were monitored once a month from a total of 150 groundwater wells between June 2003 to August 2004. A total of 153 water samples (13 surface water, 66 alluvial groundwater, 74 bedrock groundwater) were also collected and analyzed in February 2004. Groundwater chemistry in the study area is very complex, depending on a number of major factors such as geology, degree of chemical weathering, and quality of recharge water. Hydrochemical reactions such as the leaching of surficial and near-solace soil salts, dissolution of calcite, cation exchange, and weathering of silicate minerals are proposed to explain the chemistry of natural groundwater. Alluvial groundwaters locally have very high TDS concentrations, which are characterized by their chloride(nitrate)-sulfate-bicabonate facies and low Na/Cl ratio. Their grondwater levels are highly fluctuated according to rainfall event. We suggest that high nitrate content and salinity in such alluvial groundwaters originates from the local recharge of sewage effluents and/or fertilizers. Likewise, high concentrations of nitrate were also locally observed in some bedrock groundwaters, suggesting their effect of anthropogenic contamination. This is possibly due to the bypass flow taking place through macropores. Tile degree of the weathering of silicate minerals seems to be a major control of the distribution of major cations (sodium, calcium, magnesium, potassium) in bedrock groundwaters, which show a general increase with increasing depth of wells. Thermodynamic interpretation of groundwater chemistry shows that the groundwater in the study area is in chemical equilibrium with kaolinite and Na-montmorillonite, which indicates that weathering of plagioclase to those minerals is a major control of hydrochemistry of bedrock groundwater. The interpretation of the molar ratios among major ions, as well as the mass balance calculation, also indicates the role of both dissolution/precipitation of calcite and Ca-Na cationic exchange as bedrock groundwaters evolves progressively.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.489-502
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• 2012

Biogeochemical processes in groundwater-stream water mixing zone are recently of great interest because biodegradation and natural attenuation of aquatic contaminants may occur through the processes. The objectives of this study are to investigate the hydrologic and biogeochemical processes at the groundwater-stream water mixing zone through which surface water-driven nitrate may be naturally attenuated, and to examine the effect of the vertical flow exchange flux on biogeochemical processes using correlation analysis. To examine the direction of vertical water flow in the zone, vertical hydraulic gradients were measured at several depths using mini-piezometers. Microbial populations in soil samples of the zone were also analyzed by means of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Cloning methods. In addition, partial correlations among vertical flow exchange, nitrate concentration and microbial activity was investigated to examine their mutual interaction. The results showed the significant interaction among the three parameters, resulting in natural attenuation of nitrate. This study showed an example of the biogeochemical fuction of groundwater-stream water mixing zone, which can be predictable from the examination of the interaction among microbial activities, concentration of contamination and vertical flow exchange flux. temperature show a significant difference in adjacent streambed, Also, the results shows that distribution of temperature was more affected by groundwater direction than intensity of flux.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2012

We measured various geochemical parameters, including the grain size, loss on ignition(LOI), total organic carbon(TOC), total nitrogen(TN), total sulfur(TS) and metallic elements, in surface sediment collected from 19 stations in Gamak Bay in April 2010 in order to understand the sedimentary types, the origin of organic matters, and the distribution patterns of alkali(Li, Na, K, Rb) and alkaline earth(Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba) elements. The surface sediments were mainly composed of mud. The concentrations of Chlorophyll-a, TOC, TN, TS and LOI in sediment were the highest at the cultivation areas of fish and shellfish in the northern and southern parts of the bay. The redox potential(or oxidation-reduction potential) showed the positive value in the middle part of the bay, indicating that the surface sediment is under oxidized condition. The organic materials in sediment at almost all of stations were characterized by the autochthonous origin. Based on the overall distributions of metallic elements, it appears that the concentrations of alkali and alkaline earth elements except Ba in sediment are mainly influenced by the dilution effect of quartz. The concentrations of Sr and Ba are also dependent on the secondary factors such as the effect of calcium carbonate and the redox potential.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.1089-1102
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• 2004

Seasonal variation of biogeochemical characteristics was determined in Lake Shihwa from October 2002 to August 2003. When the lake was artificially constructed for the freshwater reservoir in 1988, the development of the strong haline density stratification resulted in two-layered system in water column and hypoxic/anoxic environment prevailed in the bottom layer due to oxidation of accumulated organic matters in the lake. Recently, seawater flux to the lake through the sluice has been increased to improve water quality in the lake since 2000, but seasonal stratification and hypoxic bottom layer of the lake still developed in the summer due to the nature of artificially enclosed lake system. As the lake is still receiving tremendous amount of organic matters and other pollutants from neighboring streams during the rainy summer season, limited seawater flux sluicing into the lake may not be enough for the physical and biogeochemical mass balance especially in the summer. The excess of accumulated organic matters in the bottom layer apparently exhausted dissolved oxygen and affected biogeochemical distributions and processes of organic and inorganic compounds in the stratified two-layered environment in the summer. During the summer, ammonia and dissolved organic carbon remarkably increased in the bottom layer due to the hypoxic/anoxic condition in the bottom layer. Phosphate also increased as the result of benthic flux from the bottom sediment. Meanwhile, dissolved organic carbon showed the highest value at the upstream area and decreased along the salinity gradient in the lake. In addition to the sources from the upstream, autochthonous origin of particulate organic carbon from algal bloom in the lake might be more important for sustaining aggravated water quality and development of deteriorated bottom environment in the summer. The removal of trace metals could be attributed to scavenging by strong insoluble metal-sulfide compounds in the hypoxic/anoxic bottom layer in the summer.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.524-540
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• 2005

This study has focused on the amount of evaporites and geochemical characteritics of evaporites from the acid mine drainage and on the variation of constituents in acid mine drainage during evaporation. The various colors of evaporites are frequently observed at the rock surfaces contacting acid mine drainage. In order to produce evaporites in the laboratory, acid mine drainages were sampled from the abandoned mine areas (GTa, GTb, GH and GB) and air-dried at room temperature. During the evaporation of acid mine drainages, TDS, EC values and the concentrations of major and minor ions increased, whereas ER and DO values decreased with time. The concentration of Fe increased gradually with evaporation time in the GTb and GB, whereas GH founded in one day but rapidly not detected in the other day after due to removal of Fe by formation-precipitation of amorphous Fe hydroxide. The amounts of the evaporites were produced in amounts of 4 g (GTa), 5 g (GB), 15 g (GH), and 24 g (GTb) from 4 liter of acid mine drainage after 80 days of the evaporation, respectively. In linear analysis from the products with the parameters which are the EC, TDS, salinity, ER, DO and pH contents in field, the determination coefficients were 0.98, 0.99, 0.98, 0.88, 0.89, and 0.25 respectively. If we measure the parameters in field, it would be easy to estimate the amount of evaporites in acid mine drainage. Gypsum and epsomite were identified in all of the evaporites by x-ray powder diffraction studies. Evaporite (GTb) was heated at 52, 65, 70, 95, 150, 250, and 350oC for one hour in electrical furnaces. Gypsum, $CaSO_4\cdot1/2H_2O$ and kieserite were identified in the heated evaporite by XRD. With increased heating temperature, the intensity of the peak at $7.66/AA$ (diagnostic peak of gypsum), the peak at 5.59A ($CaSO_4{\cdot}1/2H_2O)$ and the peak at $4.83{\AA}$ (kieserite) decreased in x-ray diffraction due to dehydration. In the SEM and EDS analysis for the evaporite, gypsum of well-crystallized, radiating cluster of fibrous, acicular, and columnar shapes were observed in all samples. Ca was not detected in the EDS analysis of the flower structures of GTb. Because of that, the evaporite with flower structures is thought to be eposmite.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.453-459
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• 2015

Split-flow thin cell fractionation (SPLITT fractionation, SF) is a particle separation technique that allows continuous (and thus a preparative scale) separation into two subpopulations based on the particle size or the density. In SF, there are two basic performance parameters. One is the throughput (TP), which was defined as the amount of sample that can be processed in a unit time period. Another is the fractionation efficiency (FE), which was defined as the number % of particles that have the size predicted by theory. Full-feed depletion mode (FFD-SF) have only one inlet for the sample feed, and the channel is equipped with a flow stream splitter only at the outlet in SF mode. In conventional FFD-mode, it was difficult to extend channel due to splitter in channel. So, we use large scale splitter-less FFD-SF to increase TP from increase channel scale. In this study, a FFD-SF channel was developed for a large-scale fractionation, which has no flow stream splitters (‘splitter less’), and then was tested for optimum TP and FE by varying the sample concentration and the flow rates at the inlet and outlet of the channel. Polyurethane (PU) latex beads having two different size distribution (about 3~7 µm, and about 2~30 µm) were used for the test. The sample concentration was varied from 0.2 to 0.8% (wt/vol). The channel flow rate was varied from 70, 100, 120 and 160 mL/min. The fractionated particles were monitored by optical microscopy (OM). The sample recovery was determined by collecting the particles on a 0.1 µm membrane filter. Accumulation of relatively large micron sized particles in channel could be prevented by feeding carrier liquid. It was found that, in order to achieve effective TP, the concentration of sample should be at higher than 0.4%.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.117-128
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• 2017

Occurrence characteristics and existing forms of U-Th containing minerals in KURT (KAERI Underground Research Tunnel) granite are investigated to understand long-term behavior of radionuclides in granite considered as a candidate rock for the geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste. KURT granite primarily consists of quartz, feldspar and mica. zircon, REE(Rare Earth Element)-containing monazite and bastnaesite are also identified. Besides, secondary minerals such as sericite, microcline and chlorite including quartz vein and calcite vein are observed. These minerals are presumed to be accompanied by a post-hydrothermal process. U-Th containing minerals are mainly observed at the boundaries of quartz, feldspar and mica, mostly less than $30{\mu}m$ in size. Quantitative analysis results using EPMA (Electron Probe Micro-Analyzer) show that 74.2 ~ 96.5% of the U-Th containing minerals consist of $UO_2$ (3.39 ~ 33.19 wt.%), $ThO_2$ (41.61 ~ 50.24 wt.%) and $SiO_2$ (15.43 ~ 18.60 wt.%). Chemical structure of the minerals calculated using EPMA quantitative analysis shows that the U-Th minerals are silicate minerals determined as thorite and uranothorite. The U-Th containing silicate minerals are formed by a magmatic and hydrothermal process. Therefore, KURT granite formed by a magmatic differentiation is accompanied by an alteration and replacement owing to a hydrothermal process. U-Th containing silicate minerals in KURT granite are estimated to be recrystallized by geochemical factors and parameters such as temperature, pressure and pH owing to the hydrothermal process. By repeated dissolution/precipitation during the recrystallization process, U-Th containing silicate minerals such as thorite and uranothorite are formed according to the variation in the concentrated amount of U and Th.

• 한국해양학회지
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.130-142
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• 1987

Sedimentological characteristics of the surface sediments in the southern sea off Cheju Island are described from analyses of bottom sediments. The sediments are subdivided into seven textural classes, muddy sand, slightly gravelly muddy sand, sand, clayey sand, sandy clay, sandymud, silty sand. Sand-size sediments are distributed in the southeastern part and/or around the Island, whereas sandy and muddy sediments are mainly distributed in the central and southern parts of the study area. A small portion of mud patch is located in the southwestern part of the area. According to the textural parameters analysis, sediments in the study area are poorly sorted(av.2.52 ), positive skewed(av.1.61 ), leptokurtic(av.1.74 ), transported by saltation and/or suspension, and roundness of quartz is varied from angular to surrounded, which suggesting that the depositional environment is not simple. The calcium carbonate content is on the average 26.99%, and commonly abundant in sand-size sediments, whereas organic matter content in the bulk sediment is on the average 6.70% and usually dominant in fine-grained sediments.Light minerals consist of quartz(av56.01%),Na-Ca feldspar(av.6.15%),K-feldspar(av.9.22%) and rock fragments(av28.11%).The contect onquartz and K-feldspar increases continuously away from the Cheju Island. As a result of geochemical analysis,concentrations of the elements are as follow:Zn:19.42-43.52 ppm (av.30.67ppm),Mn:50-304 ppm(av139.39ppm),Cr:3.54-10.68ppm(av6.50ppm),Pb:5.52-41.68ppm(av.15.60ppm), Co:7.08-14.68ppm (av.10.78ppm),Ni:19.70-42.42ppm(av.29.57ppm),Cu:3.14-9.12ppm(av.5.14ppm),Fe:0.48-2.08% (av1.22%),Ca:0.32-13.16%(av6.60%),Al:0.06-0.08%(av.0.27%),Mg:0.12-0.76%(av.0.53%)na:0.11-0.51%(av.0.36%) Ag:0.48-4.08ppm(av.1.22ppm).Among these elements,the content of Zn,Cu,Cr,Mn,Fe,Al,Mg,Pb and Na increase toward the southwestern area,while the content of Ca and Ag SHOWS the reversed distribution trend.Such a distribution pattern seems to imply that spatial distrivution of heavy metals is closely related to the variation in grain size. X-ray diffractogram show that the minerals in clay from the southwestern mud patch are illite ,chlorite, kaolinte,feldspar and calcite.The bulk of illite in th mud zone is believed to be originated from Huanghe and Yangytze River.The mud patch in this region contains the diagnostic calcite peak,and the concentration of Ca,ni,Pb,Ag are similar to Huanghe type,which indicates that the greater part of these clay fractions may have been derived from the Huanghe River.