• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.383-395
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• 2020

The stratigraphical position of the Haengmae Formation can provide clues towards solving the hot issue on the Silurian formation, also known as Hoedongri Formation. Since the 2010s, there have been several reports denying the Haengmae Formation as a lithostratigraphic unit. This study aimed to clarify the lithostratigraphic and chronostratigraphic significance of the Haengmae Formation. The distribution and structural geometry of the Haengmae Formation were studied through geologic mapping, and the correlation of relative geologic age and the absolute age was performed through conodont biostratigraphy and zircon U-Pb dating respectively. The representative rock of the Haengmae Formation is massive and yellow-yellowish brown pebble-bearing carbonate rocks with a granular texture similar to sandstone. Its surface is rough with a considerable amount of pores. By studying the mineral composition, contents, and microstructure of the rocks, they have been classified as pebble-bearing clastic rocks composed of dolomite pebbles and matrix. They chiefly comprise of euhedral or subhedral dolomite, and rounded, well-sorted fine-grained quartz, which are continuously distributed in the study area from Biryong-dong to Pyeongan-ri. Bedding attitude and the thickness of the Haengmae Formation are similar to that of the Hoedongri Formation in the north-eastern area (Biryong-dong to Haengmae-dong). The dip-direction attitudes were maintained 340°/15° from Biryong-dong to Haengmae-dong with a thickness of ca. 200 m. However, around the southwest of the studied area, the attitude is suddenly changed and the stratigraphic sequence is in disorder because of fold and thrust. Consequently, the formation is exposed to a wide low-relief area of 1.5 km × 2.5 km. Zircon U-Pb age dating results ranged from 470 to 449 Ma, which indicates that the Haengmae Formation formed during the Upper Ordovician or later. The pebble-bearing carbonate rock consisted of clastic sediments, suggesting that the Middle Ordovician conodonts from the Haengmae Formation must be reworked. Therefore, the above-stated evidence supports that the geologic age of the Haengmae Formation should be Upper Ordovician or later. This study revealed that the Haengmae Formation is neither shear zone, nor an upper part of the Jeongseon Limestone, and is also not the same age as the Jeongseon Limestone. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the Haengmae Formation should be considered a unit of lithostratigraphy in accordance with the stratigraphic guide of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS).

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.1-14
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• 2017

In Korea, the soil series derived from sedimentary rocks are classified into seven soil series of coarse loamy soil such as Dain, Danbug, Dongam, Imdong, Jeomgog, Maryeong, and Yonggog; seventeen soil series of fine loamy soil such as Angye, Anmi, Banho, Bigog, Deoggog, Dogye, Dojeon, Gamgog, Gugog, Jincheon, Maji, Mungyeong, Oggye, Samam, Yanggog, Yeongwol, and Yulgog; six soil series of fine silty soil such as Goryeong, Bonggog, Juggog, Gyeongsan, Yuga, and Yugog; and four soil series of clayey soil such as Mitan, Pyeongan, Pyeongjeon, and Uji. All thirty-four soil series have different drainage rates and topography. However, the soil texture depends on the parent rock. The buffer functions in GIS (Geographic Information System) techniques were used to calculate adjacent soil series from a soil series. The length of the adjacent soil series was adjusted because a side of the buffer area was one meter long. The cluster analysis was conducted using the CCC (Cubic Clustering Criterion) method, in which the number of clusters is calculated based on the individual soil series ratio. Soil survey has been carried out since 1964 as "The reconnaissance soil survey", and 1:5,000 detailed soil survey was completed in 1999 with a five-years plan in Korea. Today, all the soil survey information has been computerized. GIS techniques were used to establish a digital soil map; however, there have not been any studies to interpret pedogenesis using the GIS technique. In this study, the area of the adjacent soil series were obtained using the GIS technique. The area of the adjacent soil series can be calculated based on the information area. The similarities of soil originated from sedimentary rocks were estimated using the length. As a result, the distribution of grain size was different based on the types of sedimentary rocks and the location. The clusters were distinguished into limestone, sandstone, and shale. In addition, the soil derived from shale was divided into red shale and gray shale. This means that quantitative interpretation of the catena and this established method can be used to interpret the relationship between soil series.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.313-324
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• 2009

We explore the effect of particle shape and size on 3-dimensional (3D) network and pore structure of porous earth materials composed of glass beads and silica gel using NMR micro-imaging in order to gain better insights into relationship between structure and the corresponding hydrologic and seismological properties. The 3D micro-imaging data for the model porous networks show that the specific surface area, porosity, and permeability range from 2.5 to $9.6\;mm^2/mm^3$, from 0.21 to 0.38, and from 11.6 to 892.3 D (Darcy), respectively, which are typical values for unconsolidated sands. The relationships among specific surface area, porosity, and permeability of the porous media are relatively well explained with the Kozeny equation. Cube counting fractal dimension analysis shows that fractal dimension increases from ~2.5－2.6 to 3.0 with increasing specific surface area from 2.5 to $9.6\;mm^2/mm^3$, with the data also suggesting the effect of porosity. Specific surface area, porosity, permeability, and cube counting fractal dimension for the natural mongolian sandstone are $0.33\;mm^2/mm^3$, 0.017, 30.9 mD, and 1.59, respectively. The current results highlight that NMR micro-imaging, together with detailed statistical analyses can be useful to characterize 3D pore structures of various porous earth materials and be potentially effective in accounting for transport properties and seismic wave velocity and attenuation of diverse porous media in earth crust and interiors.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.52-61
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• 1980

This study is carried out to learn the properties of forest soils in Korea and propose the reasonable management methods of forest land. Among 178 soil series surveyed until now in Korea forest soils include 64 series broken down according to the weathered products into 5 categories such as residual materials on mountain and hill, residual materials on rolling and hill, colluvial materials on local valley and fans, alluvial materials and volcanic ash soils. What discussed in this paper are classification system, parent rocks, texture class and drainage conditions of Korean forest soils. The characteristics of Korean forest soil properties classified in U.S.D.A. soil classification system are as follows: 1. Residual soils on mountain and hill (29 soil series) are almost Lithosols without any distinct soil profile development. They have loamy skeletal (11 series), coarse loamy (5 series), fine loamy (3 series), and fine clayey soils (3 series). Their drainage conditions are somewhat excessively drained in 16 series and well drained in 7 series. 2. Residual soils on rolling and hill (19 series) are Red-Yellow Podzolic soils with well developed soil profiles. They have coarse and fine loamy texture in 12 series and fine clayey texture in 5 series mostly with well drained condition. 3. Colluvial soils on local valley and fans (13 series) include mostly Regosols and some Red-Yellow Podzolic Soils and Acid Brown Forest Soils. They have loamy skeletal (4 series), coarse loamy (3 series), fine loamy (3 series), and fine clayey soils (2 series) with well drained condition. 4. Soil textures of weathered products of parent rocks are as follows: 1) Parent rocks producing coarse texture soils are rhyolite, granite gneiss, schist, shale, sandstone, siltstone, and conglomerate. 2) Parent rocks producing fine and heavy texture soils are limestone, basalt, gabbro, and andesite porphyry. 3) Granite is a parent rock producing various textured soils.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.374-384
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• 2021

In this study, we propose a new approach for automatic fracture detection in CT scan images of rock specimens. This approach is built on top of two-stage object detection deep learning algorithm called Faster R-CNN with a major modification of using rotated bounding box. The use of rotated bounding box plays a key role in the future work to overcome several inherent difficulties of fracture segmentation relating to the heterogeneity of uninterested background (i.e., minerals) and the variation in size and shape of fracture. Comparing to the commonly used bounding box (i.e., axis-align bounding box), rotated bounding box shows a greater adaptability to fit with the elongated shape of fracture, such that minimizing the ratio of background within the bounding box. Besides, an additional benefit of rotated bounding box is that it can provide relative information on the orientation and length of fracture without the further segmentation and measurement step. To validate the applicability of the proposed approach, we train and test our approach with a number of CT image sets of fractured granite specimens with highly heterogeneous background and other rocks such as sandstone and shale. The result demonstrates that our approach can lead to the encouraging results on fracture detection with the mean average precision (mAP) up to 0.89 and also outperform the conventional approach in terms of background-to-object ratio within the bounding box.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.250-273
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• 2020

The three-story stone pagodas in Hyeon-ri and Hwacheon-ri,Yeongyang Gyeongsangbuk-do are stone pagodas that exhibit the typical style of Unified Silla. The two pagodas are believed to have been built in the mid- and late 9th centuries at the latest, considering the style of the three-story roof stone on top of the double-tier base. This is also confirmed by the reliefs carved at the base and the first-story of the pagoda. The Four Heavenly Kings and the Twelve Zodiacal Animal Deities were first combined in the late 8th century in the stone pagoda at the Wonwonsa Temple Site, and the Eight Classes of Divine Beings was also the most popular carved pagoda reliefs in the 9th century. However, the two Yeongyang stone pagodas are characterized by a combination of the Four Heavenly Kings (1st story), the Eight Classes (top base), and the Twelve Zodiacal Animals (lower base), and the stone used for the pagoda consists of sedimentary rocks of the sandstone family, which comprise most of the geological strata in the Yeongyang area, rather than ordinary granite. The new combinations of the three types of guardian deities and the Eight Classes changed from seated to standing poses is interpreted as an attempt to enhance the Buddhist faith and cultural status of the Yeongyang area, along with the fact that the stone pagoda was built using local natural materials. The Eight Classes of the Yeongyang stone pagoda does not follow the two types of arrangement of the pagodas with the Eight Classes, but some of the deities have been relocated to a new location. Composed of AsuraGandharva on the east side, Naga-Mahoraga on the south, Deva-Garuda on the west, and Kimnara-Yaksa on the north, this form can be classified as a unique 'third layout of the Eight Classes' in the Yeongyang area. Such changes in the shape and posture of the reliefs reflect a new perception of the pagodas. The reason why the Gandharva and Yaksa statues were carved on the east and north sides, respectively, was because they were deemed subordinate to the Four Heavenly Kings, and the fact that the Naga and the Mahoraga were carved on the south side was presumed to have influenced the geographical location of the two pagodas on the northern side of Banbyeoncheon Stream. The Hyeon-ri and Hwacheon-ri three-story stone pagodas inherited the tradition of typical Unified Silla-period pagodas, while also bearing their own new regional characteristics.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.139-151
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• 2022

SAGD (Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage) method is widely used for oil recovery in oil sands regions. The SAGD operation causes surface displacement, which can affect the stability of oil recovery plants and trigger various geological disasters. Therefore, it isimportant to monitor the surface displacement due to SAGD in the oil sands region. In this study, the surface displacement due to SAGD operations of the Athabasca oil sands region in Alberta, Canada, was observed by applying Permanent Scatterer Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PSInSAR) technique to the Sentinel-1 time series SAR data acquired from 2016 to 2021. We also investigated the construction and expansion of SAGD facilitiesfrom Landsat-7/8 time seriesimages, from which the characteristics of the surface displacement according to the oil production activity of SAGD were analyzed. Uplift rates of 0.3-2.5 cm/yr in the direction of line of sight were observed over the SAGDs and their vicinity, whereas subsidence rates of -0.3--0.6 cm/yr were observed in areas more than several kilometers away from the SAGDs and not affected by oil recovery activities. Through the analysis of Landsat-7/8 images, we could confirm that the SAGDs operating after 2012 and showing high oil production activity caused uplift rates greater than 1.6 cm/yr due to the subsurface steam injection. Meanwhile, very small uplift rates of several mm per year occurred over SAGDs which have been operated for a longer period of time and show relatively low oil production activity. This was probably due to the compression of reservoir sandstone due to continuous oil recovery. The subsidence observed in areas except for the SAGDs and their vicinity estimated to be a gradual land subsidence caused by melting of the permafrost. Considering the subsidence, it was expected that the uplift due to SAGD operation would be greater than that observed by the PSInSAR. The results of this study confirm that the PSInSAR can be used as an effective means for evaluating productivity and stability of SAGD in the extreme cold regions.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.111 no.1
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• pp.115-124
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• 2022

This study was conducted to obtain basic data that could help prevent damage caused by slow-moving landslides (land-creep). Specifically, the geological, topographic, and physical characteristics of land-creep were analyzed in Jiphyeon-myeon, Jinju-si. The first and second analyzed land-creeps occurred in 1982 and 2019, respectively. The area damaged in the second land-creep was about 11.5-fold larger than that damaged in the first land-creep. The dominant constituent rock in the land-creep area was sedimentary rock, which seems to be weakly resistant to weathering. The areas that collapsed due to land-creep were related to the presence of separated rocks between the bedding plane in the estimated activity surface over the slope direction and the vertically developed joint surface. Thus, surface water and soil debris were introduced through the gaps of separated rocks. Additionally, the areas collapsed due to the combination of the bedding plane and joint surface shale and sandstone showed an onion structure of weathered outcrop from the edge to inner part caused by weathering from ground water. Consequently, core stones were formed. The study area was a typical area of land-creep in a mountain caused by ground water. Land-creep was classified into convex areas of colluvial land-creep. The landslide-risk rating in the study area was classified into three and five classes. The flow of ground water moved to the northeast and coincided with the direction of the collapse. Soil bulk density in the collapsed area was lower than that in ridge area, which was rarely affected by land-creep. Thus, soil bulk density was affected by the soil disturbance in the collapsed area.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.781-797
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• 2023

Recently, there has been a rapid response from mineral-demanding countries for securing critical minerals in a high tech industries. Graphite, while overwhelmingly dominated by China in production, is changing in global supply due to the exponential growth in EV battery sector, with active exploration in East Africa. Rare earth elements are essential raw materials widely used in advanced industries. Globally, there are ongoing developments in the production of REEs from three main deposit types: carbonatite, laterite, and ion-adsorption clay types. While China's production has decreased somewhat, it still maintains overwhelming dominance in this sector. Recent changes over the past few years include the rapid emergence of Myanmar and increased production in Vietnam. Nickel has been used in various chemical and metal industries for a long time, but recently, its significance in the market has been increasing, particularly in the battery sector. Worldwide, nickel deposits can be broadly classified into two types: laterite-type, which are derived from ultramafic rocks, and ultramafic hosted sulfide-type. It is predicted that the development of sulfide-type, primarily in Australia, will continue to grow, while the development of laterite-type is expected to be promoted in Indonesia. This is largely driven by the growing demand for nickel in response to the demand for lithium-ion batteries. The global lithium ores are produced in three main types: brine lake (78%), rock/mineral (19%), and clay types (3%). Rock/mineral type has a slightly higher grade compared to brine lake type, but they are less abundant. Chile, Argentina, and the United States primarily produce lithium from brine lake deposits, while Australia and China extract lithium from both brine lake and rock/mineral sources. Canada, on the other hand, exclusively produces lithium from rock/mineral type. Vanadium has traditionally been used in steel alloys, accounting for approximately 90% of its usage. However, there is a growing trend in the use for vanadium redox flow batteries, particularly for large-scale energy storage applications. The global sources of vanadium can be broadly categorized into two main types: vanadium contained in iron ore (81%) produced from mines and vanadium recovered from by-products (secondary sources, 18%). The primary source, accounting for 81%, is vanadium-iron ores, with 70% derived from vanadium slag in the steel making process and 30% from ore mined in primary sources. Intermediate vanadium oxides are manufactured from these sources. Vanadium deposits are classified into four types: vanadiferous titanomagnetite (VTM), sandstone-hosted, shale-hosted, and vanadate types. Currently, only the VTM-type ore is being produced.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.437-448
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• 2000

The Middle Carboniferous Gabsan Formation is distributed in the Cheongrim area of southern Yeongwol and the Mt. Gachang area of Chungbuk Province. This study was carried out to investigate the lithological characters and geochemical composition of the limestones and to find out controlling structures of the limestones of the formation. The limestones of the Gabsan Formation are characterized by the light gray to light brown in color and fine and dense textures. The limestone grains are composed of crinoid fragments, small foraminfers, fusulinids, gastropods, ostracods, etc. Due to the recrystallization, some limestones consist of fine crystalline calcites. The chemical analysis of limestones of the formation was conducted to find out the contents of CaO, MgO, Al$_2$O$_3$, Fe$_2$O$_3$ and SiO$_2$. The content of CaO ranges from 49.78-60.63% and the content of MgO ranges from 0.74 to 4.63% The contents of Al$_2$O$_3$ and Fe$_2$O$_3$ are 0.02-0.55% and 0.02${\sim}$0.84% , respectively. The content of SiO$_2$ varies from 1.55 to 4.80%, but some samples contain more than 6.0%. The limestones of the formation can be grouped into two according to the CaO content: One is a group of which CaO content ranges from 49.78 to 56.26% and the other is a group of which CaO content varies from 59.36 to 60.38%. In the first group, the contents of Al$_2$O$_3$, Fe$_2$O$_3$ and SiO$_2$ range very irregularly according to the CaO content. In the second group, the values of MgO, Al$_2$O$_3$, Fe$_2$O$_3$ and SiO$_2$ are nearly same. Detailed structural analysis of mesoscopic structures and microstructures indicates the five phase of deformation in the study area. The first phase of deformation(D$_1$) is characterized by regional scale isoclinal folds, and bedding parallel S$_1$ axial plane foliation which is locally developed in the mudstone and sandstone. Based on the observations of microstructures, S$_1$ foliations appear to be developed by grain preferred orientation accompanying pressure-solution. During second phase of deformation, outcrop scale E-W trending folds with associated foliations and lineations are developed. Microstructural observations indicate that crenulation foliations were formed by pressure-solution, grain boundary sliding and grain rotation. NNW and SSE trending outcrop scale folds, axial plane foliations, crenulation foliations, crenulation lineations, intersection lineations are developed during the third phase of deformation. On the microscale F$_3$ fold, axial plane foliations which are formed by pressure solution are well developed. Fourth phase of deformation is characterized by map scale NNW trending folds. The pre-existing planar and linear structures are reoriented by F$_4$ folds. Fifth phase of deformation developed joints and faults. The distribution pattern of the limestones is mostly controlled by F$_1$ and F$_4$ folds.