• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.585-596
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• 2020

The 2017 Pohang Earthquakes occurred near a drill site in the Pohang Enhanced Geothermal System. Water injected for well stimulation was believed to have reactivated the buried near-critically stressed Miocene faults by the accumulation of the Quaternary tectonic strain. However, surface expressions of the Quaternary tectonic activity had not been reported near the epicenter of the earthquakes before the site construction. Unusual, large-scale water-escaped structures were identified 4 km away from the epicenter during a post-seismic investigation. The water-escaped structures comprise Miocene mudstones injected into overlying Pleistocene coastal sediments that formed during Marine Isotope Stage 5. This indicates the vulnerable state of the mudstones long after deposition, resulted from the combined effects of rapid tectonic uplift (before significant diagenesis) and the development of an aquifer at their unconformable interface of the mudstone. Based on the detailed field analysis and consideration of all possible endogenic triggers, we interpreted the structures to have been formed by elevated pore pressures in the mudstones (thixotropy), triggered by cyclic ground motion during the earthquakes. This interpretation is strengthened by the presence of faults 400 m from the study area, which cut unconsolidated coastal sediment deposited after Marine Isotope Stage 5. Geological context, including high rates of tectonic uplift in SE Korea, paleo-seismological research on Quaternary faults near the study area, and historical records of paleoearthquakes in SE Korea, also support the interpretation. Thus, epicenter and surrounding areas of the 2017 Pohang Earthquake are considered as a paleoseismologically active area, and the causative fault of the 2017 Pohang Earthquakes was expected to be nearly critical state.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.248-260
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• 2009

With regard to oversea mineral resources development, recent trend has been changed from a simple capital investment to a direct development of the resources. In relation to the stability of a slope in large open-pit coal mine, groundwater system was investigated and the validity of horizontal drainage hole was evaluated in Pasir coal mine, Indonesia. In this work, various field tests were carried out for a characterization of groundwater system, which included in-situ permeability measurement, tracer test and monitoring of groundwater levels. Especially, the influence of SM river on the characteristics of the groundwater flow system was mainly inspected. For the permeability measurement, Guelph permeameter was employed, and was found that sandstone was more permeable than mudstone and coal seam. From a comparison of lithological structure and the results of groundwater level monitoring, sandstone and thin coal seam with fractures were found to be a main channel for groundwater flow. In the results of tracer tests, the effect of SM river on the groundwater system depends on the geological structure of its base. To identify the effect of horizontal drainage holes, 2-D groundwater modeling was performed. Four different cases were tested, which are different from the length of drainage hole and the existence of pond on top of the slope. To enhance the drainage effect and slope stability, the drainage hole should be drilled to the depth of coal seam layer, which provides a main pathway of groundwater flow and embedded by sandstone. For this purpose, correct identification of surrounding geology should be preceded.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.475-487
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• 2017

We performed landslide flume tests to analyze characteristics of landslide occurrence and change in the ground materials due to rainfall infiltration. The test apparatus is composed of flume, rainfall simulator, and measurement sensors and landslides were triggered by heavy rainfall (Intensity=200 mm/hr) sprinkled at the above of an artificial slope. The measurement sensors for matric suction and volumetric water content were installed with 3 sets at shallow (GL-0.2 m), middle (GL-0.4 m), and deep depth (GL-0.6 m) in the slope and the tests were performed with in-situ, loose, and dense condition of each weathered soils of granite, gneiss, and mudstone. The analyses show that surface erosion was dominant in initial time of the test due to heavy rainfall and then landslides occur following locally happened transverse tension cracks. The characteristics of landslide were both shallow failure because of a spread of wetting front induced by the rainfall infiltration and retrogressive failure. While the matric suction was decreased rapidly without any precursor in the soil saturation, the volumetric water content was increased gradually, reached its maximum value, and then decreased rapidly with landslide.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.31-42
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• 2000

Consolidation and permeability are major engineering properties of soil. In clay, coefficient of permeability and consolidation can be calculated by incremental loading consolidation test. However, it is known that the incremental loading test has several deficiencies including long testing time, non-uniform stress state, very soft clay and problem of back pressure saturation. Specially, it is not performed with horizontal consolidation test. Several methods have been proposed for obtaining reliable values of $C_v$. Among these, the square root of time-fitting method proposed by Taylor(1948) and logarithm of time-fitting method, also called Casagrande's method, are used extensively in soil engineering practice. But these methods are not amenable for the absence of initial linear portion and have the difficulties involved in distinguishing secondary compression from primary compression. Rowecell consolidation tests were carried out in this study with different trimming axis and sample size. The results were compared with those of other methods; Casagrande,$Taylor,\; Casagrande,\; Hyperbolic,\; \delta/t-logt$. From the results, we explained a relationship between horizontal coefficient of permeability and void ratio was obtained. Finally, the directly measured horizontal coefficient of permeability obtained by using the Rowecell was compared with the permeability derived indirectly from the consolidation test result.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.87-98
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• 2020

The bird track fossil site in Haman Formation is divided into seven sedimental layers by the sedimentary structures, lithofacies and sequences. The bird tracks top on the highest layer, which includes ripple marks and suncracks. The layer has lithofacies with reddish grey siltstone and dark grey mudstone, alternately. As an analysis for the same rocks of the fossil site, physical properties show on mean values for 0.62% of absorption rate, 1.64% of porosity and 2.63 of specific gravity. Rock-forming minerals composed mainly of plagioclase, quartz, calcite, chlorite and mica. Meanwhile, we executed an experiments based on the petrography and weatherings to find a proper consolidants. In the experiments, the OH 100 reagent proved stable aspect and the lowest transition rate in terms of weight and chromaticity. Also, it showed the highest increase in ultrasonic velocity, improving the physical properties of the rocks. In the case of applying the OH 100 with antihygro, an swelling inhibitors on the sedimentary rocks, the chromaticity indicated an stable transition aspect. When it comes to the physical properties, the antihygro also decreases the porosity effectively. Thus, the most proper method for the fossil site of Haman Formation is to apply antihygro and OH 100 reagents since the rocks includes clay minerals that show swelling characteristics. However, this result is deduced from an indoor application experiments, leaving the necessity of verification how these reagents would affect the bird tracks site under the field condition.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.36 no.7
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• pp.617-631
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• 2015

The Sesong Formation, mixed carbonate-siliciclastic deposits of late Middle Cambrian (Series 3) to Furongian in age, in the Taebaeksan Basin shows the Steptoean Positive Carbon Isotope Excursion (SPICE) with the ${\delta}^{13}C$ values ranging from 1.14 to 2.81‰ in the approximately 15-m-thick stratigraphic interval. The SPICE in the Sesong Formation occurs in the lower part of the Paibian Stage which contains trilobite biozones of the Fenghuangella laevis Zone, Prochuangia mansuyi Zone and the lower part of the Chuangia Zone. The Sesong Formation is composed of six lithofacies including laminated mudstone, nodular shale, laminated sandstone, massive sandstone, limestone conglomerate, and limestone-shale couplet facies. The Sesong Formation is known to have been deposited in the outer shelf below storm wave base. The SPICE occurs in the stratigraphic interval associated with highstand systems tract, correlative conformity and transgressive systems tract of the Sesong Formation. The peak carbon isotope value in the SPICE may coincide with the correlative conformity formed by relative sea-level fall. The occurrence of the SPICE in the Sesong Formation suggests that the SPICE can be used as a tool of global correlation for the successions of mixed carbonate-siliciclastics which lack fossils.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.85-106
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• 2017

The Lago Sofia conglomerate in southern Chile is a deep-marine gravelly deposit, which is hundreds of meters thick and kilometers wide and extends laterally for more than 100 km, filling the foredeep trough of the Cretaceous Magallanes Basin. For understanding the depositional processes and environments of this gigantic deep-sea conglomerate, detailed analyses on sedimentary facies, architecture and paleoflow patterns were carried out, highlighting the differences between the northern (Lago Pehoe and Lago Goic areas) and southern (Lago Sofia area) parts of the study area. The conglomerate bodies in the northern part occur as relatively thin (< 100 m thick), multiple units intervened by thick mudstone-dominated sequences. They show paleoflows toward ENE and S to SW, displaying a converging drainage pattern. In the southern part, the conglomerate bodies are vertically interconnected and form a thick (> 400 m thick) conglomerate sequence with rare intervening fine-grained deposits. Paleoflows are toward SW. The north-to-south variations are also distinct in sedimentary facies. The conglomerate bodies in the southern part are mainly composed of clast-supported conglomerate with sandy matrix, which is interpreted to be deposited from highly concentrated bedload layers under turbidity currents. Those in the northern part are dominated by matrix- to clast-supported conglomerate with muddy matrix, which is interpreted as the products of composite mass flows comprising a turbidity current, a gravelly hyperconcentrated flow and a mud-rich debris flow. All these characteristics suggest that the Lago Sofia conglomerate was formed in centripetally converging submarine channels, not in centrifugally diverging channels of submarine fans. The tributaries in the north were dominated by mass flows, probably affected by channel-bank failures or basin-marginal slope instability processes. In contrast, the trunk channel in the south was mostly filled by tractive processes, which resulted in the vertical and lateral accretion of gravel bars, deposition of gravel dunes and filling of scours and channels, similar to deposits of terrestrial gravel-bed rivers. The trunk channel developed along the axis of foredeep trough and its confinement within the trough is probably responsible for the thick, interconnected channel fills. The large-scale architecture of the trunk-channel fills shows an eastward offset stacking pattern, suggesting that the channel migrated eastwards most likely due to the uplift of the Andean Cordillera.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.104 no.4
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• pp.588-597
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• 2015

This study was carried out to identify the reasons of the landslide by land creeping in South Korea in order to provide basic information for establishing the management plan for prevention. Total 29 sites of landslide areas caused by land creeping were observed in South Korea. Among them, the soil-composition of most frequent landslide areas occurred by land creeping was colluvium landslide as 75.9% (22 sites), followed by clay soil landslide as 10.3% (3 sites), bedrock landslide as 6.9% (2 sites), and weathered rock landslide as 6.9% (2 sites). According to the types of parental rocks, the investigated landslide areas were divided into 3 types: 1) metamorphic rocks including schist, phylite, migmatitic gneiss, quartz schist, pophyroblastic gneiss, leucocratic granite, mica schst, banded gneiss and granitic gneiss, 2) sedimentary rocks including limestone, sandstone or shale and mudstone, 3) igneous rocks such as granite, andesite, rhyolite and masanite. As a result, it was noticed that the landslides occurred mostly at the metamorphic rocks areas (13 sites; 44.8%), followed by sedimentary rock areas (12 sites; 41.4%), and igneous rock areas (4 sites; 13.8%). Looking at the direct causes of the landslide, the anthropological activities (71%) such as cut slopes for quarrying, construction of country house, plant, and road, farming of mountain top, and reservoir construction were the biggest causes of the landslides, followed by the land creeping landslides (22%) caused by geological or naturally occurred (22%), and cliff erosions (7%) by caving of rivers and valleys.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.332-344
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• 2007

Various geophysical well logs have been made along the four deep wells in Pohang, Gyeongbuk. The primary focus of geophysical well loggings was to improve understanding the subsurface geologic structure, to evaluate in situ physical properties, and to estimate aquifer production zones using fluid temperature and conductivity gradient logs. Especially natural gamma logs interpreted with core logs of borehole BH-1 were useful to discriminate the lithology and to determine the lithologic sequences and boundaries consisting of semi-consolidated Tertiary sediments and intrusive rocks such as basic dyke and Cretaceous sediments. Cross-plot of physical properties inferred from geophysical well logs were used to identify rock types such as Cretaceous sandstone and mudstone, Tertiary sediments, rhyolite, and basic dyke. The temperature log indicated $82.51^{\circ}C$ at the depth of 1,981.3 meters in borehole BH-4. However, considering the temperature of borehole BH-2 measured under stable condition, we expect the temperature at the depth in borehole BH-4, if it is measured in stable condition, to be about 5 or $6^{\circ}C$ higher. Several permeable fractures also have been identified from temperature and conductivity gradient logs, and cutting logs.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.163-172
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• 2016

The aim of this study is to investigate the geological features distributed in the northwest coast, Goheung Gun as a geological field course of all levels. The study area is about 1.6km coast in direction of northwest from Sumundong ferry to Jangsun beach. The learning contents of the geology units in science textbooks from elementary school to high school was analyzed and, geomorphology and geology of study area was investigated for this study. In this study area, lots of geomorphology and geology elements related to the learning contents of the geology units in science textbooks were founded such as gravel beach, sea cliff, granite, rhyolite, andesite, gneiss, sedimentary rocks, fault, unconformity, stratification, cross bedding, graded bedding, intrusion structure, vein, dyke, plant fossil and spheroidal weathering. Characteristically, strata, stratification, granite, sedimentary rocks(conglomerate, sandstone, mudstone and shale), fault, plant fossil and weathering phenomenon were commonly involved with the learning contents of the geology units in elementary school science, middle school science and high school earth science I, II. This area is to be recommended as a site of geological field course for all students from elementary school to high school, as various field work materials for geological learning were distributed and, geological observation trail of about 400m in length for observation of strata and so on was installed along the coast in direction of the northwest from Sumundong ferry.