• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.207-214
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• 2013

To identify rock-magnetic properties of volcanogenic hydrothermal sulfide deposits, chimneys were obtained from the Tofua Arc in Southwest Pacific, using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and Grab with AV cameras (GTVs). Three different types of chimneys used in this study are a high-temperature chimney with venting fluid-temperature of about $200^{\circ}C$ (ROV01), a low-temperature chimney of about $80^{\circ}C$ (GTV01), and an inactive chimney (ROV02). Magnetic properties of ROV01 are dominated by pyrrhotite, except for the outermost that experienced severe oxidation. Concentration and grain-size of ROV01 pyrrhotite are relatively low and fine. For GTV01, both magnetic concentration and grain-size increase from interior to margin. Pyrrhotite, dominant in the core, becomes mixed with hematite in the rim of the chimney due to secondary oxidation. High concentration and large grain-size of magnetic minerals characterize the ROV02. Dominant magnetic phases are pyrrhotite, hematite and goethite. In particular, the outermost rim shows a presence of magnetite produced by magnetotactic bacterial activity. Such distinctive contrast in magnetic concentration, grain-size and mineralogy among three different types of chimney enables the rock-magnetic study to characterize an evolution of hydrothermal deposits.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.31 no.7
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• pp.13-28
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• 2015

This study extended the Lee et al.'s (2015a) solution which improved the existing analytical solution for prediction of the residual pore water pressure into progressive wave and flow coexisting field. At this time, the variation of incident wave period and wave length should be incorporated to Lee et al.'s (2015a) analytical solution, which does not consider flow. For the case of infinite thickness, the new analytical solution using Fourier series was compared to the analytical solution using Laplace transformation proposed by Jeng and Seymour (2007). It was verified that the new solution was identical to the Jeng and Seymour's solution. After verification of the new analytical solution, the residual pore water pressure head was examined closely under various given values of flow velocity's magnitude, direction, incident wave's period and seabed thickness. In each proposed analytical solution, asymptotic approach to shallow depth with the changes in the soil thickness within finite soil thickness was found possible, but not to infinite depth. It is also identified that there exists a discrepancy case between the results obtained from the finite and the infinite seabed thicknesses even on the same soil depth.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.533-540
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• 2014

The Wangdol-cho area, in the Hupo Bank, plays a very important role in main fishing grounds, leisure tourism and marine environmental researches of the East Sea. We analyzed the detailed bathymetry and classified the seabed characteristics of the Wangdol-cho area, based on seafloor backscattering images and sediment grain size. The Hupo Bank is developed in parallel with the eastern coastal line of Korean peninsula, and the shallowest area (Wangdol-cho) of the Hupo Bank is located along the eastern part of Hupo Port. The Wangdol-cho comprises three summits; north summit, middle summit, and south summit. The middle summit area among the three summits has the most shallow water depth with minimum about 6 m. The north summit shows about 8 m minimum depth and the south summit about 9 m. The bathymetry data around three summits represent undulating seabeds with many scattered underwater reefs and shallow water depth. The area between the underwater reefs, the flat seafloor in the northeastern part of the survey site, and the western steep slope area have relatively coarse sediments such as sandy gravel and gravelly sand. The bathymetry in the western side of the Wangdol-cho shows steep slope seabed, extending to the Hupo Basin. Fine sediments including mud and silty sand occur in the Hupo Basin area of the survey site. The submarine detailed topography and the analysis of the seafloor characteristics of the survey area are expected to contribute to management for marine environmental researches and sustainable use of ecosystems in the Wangdol-cho.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.70-77
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• 2015

This paper proposes an application of unscented Kalman filter(UKF) for localization of an underwater robot. The method compares the bathymetric measurement from the robot with the seabed terrain information. For the measurement of bathymetric range to seabed, it uses a DVL which typically yields four range data together with velocity of the robot. Usual extended Kalman filter is not appropriated for application in case of terrain navigation, since it is not feasible to derive Jacobian for the bathymetric range measurement. Though particle filter(PF) is a nice solution which doesn't require Jacobian and can deal with non-linear and non-Gaussian system and measurement, it suffers from heavy computational burden. The paper compares the localization performance and the computation time of the UKF approach and PF approach. Though there have been some UKF methods which are used for underwater navigation, application of the UKF for bathymetric localization is rare. Especially, the proposed method uses only four range data whereas many of the bathymetric navigation methods have used multibeam sonar which yields hundreds of scanned range data. The result shows feasibility of the UKF approach for terrain-based navigation using small numbers of range data.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.455-466
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• 2010

Seabed mineral resources explored by Korea are categorized into major three types of deposit; manganese nodule, manganese crust and polymetallic sulfides. Pt displays high enrichment factors (400, ore/crust ratios) in manganese nodule. Rare earth oxide content in manganese nodule ranges from 0.037 to 0.302 REO % with mean value of 0.12 REO %. Both of Te and Pt are enriched elements in manganese crust, displaying enrichment factors of 10800 and 150, respectively. Rare earth oxide's contents of manganese crust are slightly higher than manganese nodule's (0.013~0.387 REO %, average = 0.18 REO %). Se and In are outstanding rare metals from seabed polymetallic sulfides, showing enrichment factors of 1300 and 110, respectively. Au (0.8~26.3 g/t) and Ag (0.9~348.0 g/t) are another enriched elements in polymetallic sulfides. The main concern at exploiting seabed mineral resource will be a securing rare metals for high-technology industries and rare metals from subsea mineral deposits will add economic values to commodity candidates such like Co, Ni and Cu.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.689-697
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• 2020

Hazardous and noxious substances (HNS) may cause maritime incidents during marine transportation, which are liable to lead to a large amount of spillage or discharge into the sea. The damage to the marine environment caused by the HNS spill or discharge is known to be much greater than the damage caused by oil spill. Particularly dangerous is HNS, which is deposited or buried in the seabed, as it can damage the organisms that live on, in, and near the bottom of the sea, the so-called "benthos," forming the benthic ecosystem. Therefore, it is vital that the HNS deposited on the seabed be recovered. In order to do so, procedures and equipment are required for accurate detection, stabilization treatment, and recovery of HNS in subsea sediment. Thus, when developing a mechanical recovery system, the performance requirements should be selected using performance indices, and the conceptual design of the mechanical recovery system should be based on performance requirements decided upon and selected in advance. Therefore, this study was conducted to arrive at a conceptual design for a mechanical recovery system for the recovery of HNS deposited on the seabed. In the design of the system, based on the fundamental scenario, the method of suction foundation with the function of self enclosing was adopted for recovering the HNS sediment in the subsea sediment. The mechanical recovery system comprises the suction foundation, pollution prevention, a pump system, control system, monitoring device, location information device, transfer device, and tanks. This conceptual design is expected to be reflected and used in the basic design of the components and shapes of the mechanical recovery system.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.184-191
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• 2011

Preliminary design of a mooring system for a floating wave energy converter(WEC) is performed. A mooring line is designed to consist of two parts; the one is a chain in heavy weight laid on the seabed and linked to an anchor on the seabed and the other is a light weight chain suspended at a floater. A high weight chain laid on the seabed can contribute to mitigate dynamic energy propagated from top oscillation and decrease anchor weight and volume. Through a low weight chain suspended between a floater and seabed the WEC's function to produce energy from wave can be affected in minimum by the motion of a chain. The static and dynamic analyses for the designed mooring system were carried out to evaluate WEC system's safety. The present study shows that the designed gravity anchor moves horizontally due to the tension exerted on the anchor in the severe ocean environmental condition. The present mooring system should be redesigned to satisfy the safety requirements. The present study will be useful to predict the safety of the mooring system under ocean environment.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.383-394
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• 2014

The surface sediments from the manganese nodule exploration area of Korea in the Clarion-Clipperton fracture zone were investigated to understand the resource potential of and emplacement mechanism for rare earth elements (REEs). The sediments are categorized into three lithological units (Unit I, II and III from top to bottom), but into two groups (Unit I/II and Unit III) based on the distribution pattern of REEs. The distribution pattern of REEs in Unit I/II is similar to that of Post-Archean Australian Shale (PAAS), but shows a negative Ce anomaly and enrichment in heavy REEs (HREEs). In Unit III, the HREE enrichment and Ce anomaly is much more remarkable than Unit I/II when normalized to PAAS, which are interpreted as resulting from the absorption of REEs from seawater by Fe oxyhydroxides that were transported along the buoyant plume from remotely-located hydrothermal vents. It is supported by the PAAS-normalized REE pattern of Unit III which is similar to those of seawater and East Pacific Rise sediments. Meanwhile, the PAAS-normalized REE pattern of Unit I/II is explained by the 4:1 mixing of terrestrial eolian sediment and Unit III from each, indicating the much smaller contribution of hydrothermal origin material to Unit I/II. The studied sediments have the potentiality of a low-grade and large tonnage REE resource. However, the mining of REE-bearing sediment needs a large size extra collecting, lifting and treatment system to dress and refine low-grade sediments if the sediment is exploited with manganese nodules. It is economically infeasible to develop low-grade REE sediments at this moment in time because the exploitation of REE-bearing sediments with manganese nodules increase the mining cost.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.408-417
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• 2007

Recently, an artificial beach has been constructed compensating for loss of the natural one caused by the development of coastal area, as well as serving as a location for recreational activities such as sea bathing. It is well known that some structure should be constructed to protect an artificial beach from the outflow due to wave action of the reclaimed sand. In general, dike is utilized as the structure to protect an artificial beach. And, one of the factors which may need to be taken into consideration for stability of dike on seabed foundation is the ground water behavior behind dike. However, the interrelated phenomena of nonlinear wave and ground water response have relatively little attention although these interactions are important for stability of structure and sand suction to the artificial beach. In this paper, the numerical wave tank was developed to clarify nonlinear wave, dike and ground water dynamic interaction, which can simulate the difference of ground water and mean water level. Using the developed numerical wave tank, the present study investigates how variation of ground water level influences hydrodynamic characteristics in seabed around dike and numerically simulates the wave fields, pore flow patterns, pore water pressures and vorticities according to variation of ground water level. Numerical results explain well how hydrodynamic characteristics in seabed around dike is affected by the variation of ground water level.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.49-61
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• 2020

We analyzed the morphological characteristics of OCC (Ocean Core Complexes) in the middle part of the Central Indian Ridge (MCIR) using high-resolution geophysical data recorded on the Deep-Tow SideScan Sonar IMI-30 system. In terms of slope-gradient variations calculated from the high-resolution bathymetry data, the normal faults formed by seafloor spreading were associated generally with slopes > 30° and resulted in high backscatter intensities, which reflect more topographic effects than acoustic medium variation. However, the areas associated with gentle slopes < 10° tend to show the backscatter intensities reflecting the acoustic characteristic of the medium. We show that the detachment faults exposing the OCCs were initiated with high-angle normal faults (58°) exhibiting outward and inward dips of a breakaway zone. In order to examine the spatial distribution of OCC structures, we characterized the transition from magmatic-dominant seafloor with abyssal hills to tectonic-dominant seafloor with OCC using the down-slope direction variation. The slope direction of the seafloor generally tends to be perpendicular to the ridge azimuth in the magmatic-dominant zone, whereas it becomes parallel to the given ridge azimuth near the OCC structures. Therefore, this spatial change of seafloor slope directions indicates that the formation of OCC structures is causally associated with the tectonic-dominant spreading rather than magmatic extension. These results also suggest that the topographical characteristics of seafloor spreading and OCC structures can be distinguished using high-resolution geophysical data. Thus, we propose that the high-resolution bathymetry and backscatter intensity data can help select potential areas of exploitation of hydrothermal deposits in MCIR effectively.