• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.12-17
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• 2017

We construct 3D SV-wave velocity structure of the crust and the upper mantle beneath East Asia from Rayleighwave group-velocity measurements. For the construction of the SV-wave velocity model at 10 ~ 100 km depth, we used seismic data recorded at 321 broadband stations in Korea, Japan, and China. Rayleigh-wave group-velocity dispersion curves were obtained by using the multiple filtering technique in the period range from 3 to 150 s. High SV-velocity anomalies are imaged beneath the East Sea from 10 km depth to deeper depth, implying that the Moho beneath the East Sea is between at 10 ~ 20 km depth. We estimated the Moho beneath the Korean peninsula to be around 35 km based on the depth where a high-velocity anomaly is observed. The SV-wave velocity model shows prominent fast S-velocity anomalies near northeastern Japan, associated with the subducting Pacific plate. Low-velocity anomalies are found beneath the east coast of the Korean peninsula at 100 km depth, which may play a role in the formation of the Ulleungdo and the Ulleung basin. We observed low-velocity anomalies beneath the Yamato basin at 100 km depth as well, which may indicate the upwelling of fluid from the Pacific plate via dehydration at deeper depth.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.59-68
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• 2013

Focal mechanism solutions in the southwestern region of the Korean Peninsula ($34^{\circ}N-36^{\circ}N$, $126^{\circ}E-128^{\circ}E$) were obtained from the analysis of the recent 22 earthquakes ($M{\geq}2.0$) occurred from January, 2005 to March, 2011. The spatial differences between the epicenters recalculated by this study and those by KMA (Korea Meteorological Administration) and KIGAM (Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources) are less than $0.05^{\circ}$, indicating a small deviation. However, they become a little bit larger in the coastal area due to a biased arrangement of seismic stations. Redetermined depths of hypocenters show a difference less than 12.7 km by comparison with the depth data announced by KIGAM. Most epicenters in inland area are located closely to the lineaments. Fault plane solutions were obtained from the analysis of P and SH wave polarities, and SH/P amplitude ratios. They show strike-slip faulting or strike-slip faulting with reverse components dominantly. The P-axes trends are mainly ENE-WSW or E-W directions. The direction of fault plane and auxiliary plane with 'NNE-SSW and WNW-ESE' or 'NE-SW and NW-SE' are dominant and almost parallel to the general trends of lineaments in the study area.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.73-79
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• 2020

As the number of earthquakes gradually increases on the Korean Peninsula, much research has been actively conducted to detect earthquakes quickly and accurately. Because traditional seismic stations are expensive to install and operate, recent research is currently being conducted to detect earthquakes using low-cost MEMS sensors. In this article, we evaluate how a low-cost MEMS acceleration sensor installed in a smartphone can be used to detect earthquakes. To this end, we installed about 280 smartphones at various locations in Korea to collect acceleration data and then assessed the installed sensors' noise floor through PSD calculation. The noise floor computed from PSD determines the magnitude of the earthquake that the installed MEMS acceleration sensors can detect. For the last few months of real operation, we collected acceleration data from 200 smartphones among 280 installed smartphones and then computed their PSDs. Based on our experiments, the MEMS acceleration sensor installed in the smartphone is capable of observing and detecting earthquakes with a magnitude 3.5 or more occurring within 10km from an epic center. During the last several months of operation, the smartphone acceleration sensor recorded an earthquake of magnitude 3.5 in Miryang on December 30, 2019, and it was confirmed as an earthquake using STA/LTA which is a simple earthquake detection algorithm. The earthquake detection system using MEMS acceleration sensors is expected to be able to detect increasing earthquakes more quickly and accurately.

• Journal of the Korean Geophysical Society
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.45-48
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• 2005

In order to investigate the velocity structure of the southern part of the Korean peninsula, exploded seismic signals were recorded for 120 s along a 294-km WNW-ESE line and 150 s along a 335-km NNW-SSE line in 2002 and 2004, respectively. Velocity tomograms were derived from inverting first arrival times. One-dimensional velocity models derived by joint analyses of teleseismic receiver functions and surface wave dispersion at several stations near the profiles were uesd to build initial models. The raypaths indicate several midcrust interfaces including ones at approximate depths of 2.0 and 14.9 km with refraction velocities of approximately 6.0 and 7.1 km/s, respectively. The deepest significant interface varies in depth from 30.8 km to 36.1 km. The critically refracting velocity varies from 7.8 to 8.1 km/s along this interface which may correspond to the Moho discontinuity. The velocity tomograms show (1) existence of a low-velocity zone centered at 6-7 km depth under the Okchon fold belt, (2) extension of the Yeongdon fault down to greater than 10 km, and (3) existence of high-velocity materials under the Gyeongsan basin whose thickness is less than 4.2 km.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.589-593
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• 2018

Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea (DPRK) conducted the $6^{th}$ underground nuclear test at the Punggye-ri underground nuclear test site on September 27, 2017 12 hours 30 minutes of Korean local time. Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) under U.N. announced the body wave magnitude of the event was mb 6.1 while U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)'s calculation was mb 6.3. In this study, the differences of the magnitude estimates were investigated and verified. For this purpose, a source scaling between the $5^{th}$ and $6^{th}$ event, which's epicenters are 200 meters apart, was performed using seismic data sets from 30 broadband stations. The relative amplitude variations of the $6^{th}$ event compared to the $5^{th}$ event in the frequency domain was analyzed through the scaling. The increased amount of the bodywave magnitude $m_b$ for the $6^{th}$ event was calculated at 1 Hz, which was compared to those from USGS and CTBTO's calculations.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.365-384
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• 2023

We applied the partitioned waveform inversion to 2,026 event data recorded at 173 seismic stations from the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology Data Managing Center and the Ocean Hemisphere network Project to estimate S-wave velocity and radial anisotropy models beneath the Western Pacific. In the Philippine Sea plate, high-Vs anomalies reach deeper in the West Philippine basin than in the Parece-Vela basin. Low-Vs anomalies found at 80 km below the Parece-Vela basin extend deeper into the West Philippine Basin. This velocity contrast between the basins may be caused by differences in lithospheric age. Low-Vs anomalies are observed beneath the Caroline seamount chain and the Caroline plate. Overall positive radial anisotropy anomalies are observed in the Western Pacific, but negative radial anisotropy is found at > 220 km depth on the subducting plate along the Mariana trench and at ~50 km in the Parece-Vela basin. Positive radial anisotropy is found at > 200 km depth beneath the Caroline seamount chain, which may indicate the 'drag' between the plume and the moving Pacific plate. High-Vs anomalies are found at 40 ~ 180 km depth beneath the Ontong-Java plateau, which may indicate the presence of unusually thick lithosphere due to underplating of dehydrated plume material.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.475-485
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• 2006

The physical properties of the central and southwestern crust of South Korea were estimated by comparing values of ${Q_P}^{-1}\;and\;{Q_S}^{-1}$ in the Kimcheon and Mokpo areas. In order to get ${Q_P}^{-1}\;and\;{Q_S}^{-1}$ values, seismic data were collected from two stations of the KIGAM network (KMC and MUN) and four stations of the KMA network (CPN, KUC, MOP, and WAN). An extended coda-normalization method was applied to these data. Estimates of ${Q_P}^{-1}\;and\;{Q_S}^{-1}$ show variations depending on frequency. As frequencies vary from 3 Hz to 24 Hz, the estimates decrease from $(1.4{\pm}3.9){\times}10^{-3}\;to\;(2.3{\pm}3.5){\times}10^{-4}\;for\;{Q_P}^{-1}\;and\;(1.8{\pm}1.3){\times}10^{-3}\;to\;(1.9{\pm}1.5){\times}10^{-4}\;for\;{Q_S}^{-1}$ in central South Korea, and $(5.9{\pm}4.8){\times}10^{-3}\;to\;(2.2{\pm}3.8){\times}10^{-4}\;for\;{Q_P}^{-1}\;and\;(0.5{\pm}2.8){\times}10^{-3}\;to\;(1.8{\pm}1.6){\times}10^{-4}\;for\;{Q_S}^{-1}$ in southwestern South Korea. According that a frequency-dependent power law is applied to the data, the best fits of ${Q_P}^{-1}\;and\;{Q_S}^{-1}\;are\;0.003f^{-0.49}\;and\;0.005f^{-1.03}$ in central South Korea, and $0.026f^{-1.47}$ and $0.001f^{-0.49}$ in southwestern South Korea, respectively. These values almost correspond to those of seismically stable regions although ${Q_P}^{-1}$ values of southwestern South Korea are a little high due to lack of data used.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.24 no.8
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• pp.684-690
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• 2003

Recently Choongchung provinces in the central part of South Korea have received increasing attention because of the newly Planned administrative capital construction. In this area, a seismic network of Korea National University of Education has been installed since September 1996, and analyzed Q$_P^{-1}$ and Q$_S^{-1}$ by the extended Coda normalization method based on 60 events recorded by 2 stations of the network. To compensate for insufficient data, we combined the data from 33 events observed at 1 of the stations of the network of Korea Institute of Geology, Mining & Materials. Estimated Q$_P^{-1}$ and Q$_S^{-1}$ showed frequency dependence that decrease from (1.9${\pm}$3.0)${\times}$10$^{-3}$ and (2.4${\pm}$1.4)${\times}$10$^{-3}$ at 3.0 Hz to (5.4${\pm}$1.5)${\times}$10$^{-4}$ and (6.3${\pm}$1.1)${\times}$10$^{-4}$ at 24 Hz, respectively. Using a power law dependent on frequency, the best fit of Q$_P^{-1}$ and Q$_S^{-1}$ are 0.003f$^{-0.62}$ and 0.006f$^{-0.71}$ respectively. These values correspond to those of seismically stable regions, and are slightly less dependent on frequency than those of the southeastern part of Korea due to high Q$^{-1}$ values in high frequencies. Further observations are required in the central part of S. Korea to evaluate the difference of Q$^{-1}$ between central and southeastern parts of S. Korea.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.18-26
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• 2013

Shear-wave velocity ($v_s$) structures beneath two seismic stations, JJU and JJB on the flanks of the volcano Halla on Jeju island, Korea, were estimated by receiver-function inversion and H-${\kappa}$ stacking applied to 150 teleseismic events ($M_W{\geq}5.5$) recorded since 2007. $P_S$ waves converted at the Moho discontinuity does not appear clearly for northwesterly back-azimuths ($207{\sim}409^{\circ}$, average $308^{\circ}$) at station JJU and southeasterly back-azimuths ($119{\sim}207^{\circ}C$, average $163^{\circ}$) at station JJB. This may be due to a gradual velocity increase at Moho or heterogeneity within the crust. The $v_s$ models derived by inversion of receiver functions indicate a distinct low velocity layer ($v_s{\leq}3.5km/s$; LVL) within the crust and a gradual increase in $v_s$ in the depth interval of 30 to 40 km. Within the radius of 18 km beneath station JJB, the LVL occurs at depths of 14 ~ 26 km and the 'Moho' ($v_s{\geq}4.3km/s$) is at 34 km depth. Ten kilometers to the west, within the radius of 16 km beneath station JJU, both the LVL and the Moho are significantly shallower, at depths of 14 to 24 km and 30 km, respectively. H-${\kappa}$ analyses for stations JJU and JJB yield estimated crustal thickness of 29 and 33 km and $v_p/v_s$ ratios of 1.64 and 1.75, respectively. The lesser $v_p/v_s$ ratio was derived for rocks nearest to th peak of the volcano.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.113-126
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• 2022

The tectonic history of the Chukchi Abyssal Plain in the Amerasia Basin, Arctic Ocean, has not been fully explored due to the harsh conditions of sea ice preventing detailed observation. Existing models of the tectonic history of the region provide contrasting interpretation of the timing of formation of the crust (Mesozoic to Cenozoic), crust type (from hyper-extended continental crust to oceanic crust), and formation process (from parallel/fan-shaped rifting to transformation faulting). To help determine the age of the oceanic crust, the geothermal gradient was measured at three stations in the south of abyssal plain at depth of 2,160-2,250 m below sea level. Heat flow measurement stations were located perpendicular to the spreading axis over a 40 km-long transect. In-situ thermal conductivity measurement, corrected by the laboratory test, gave observed marine heat flows of 55 to 61 mW/m². All measurements were taken during Arctic expeditions in 2018 (ARA09C expedition) and 2021 (ARA12C expedition) by the Korean ice-breaking research vessel (IBRV) Araon. Given the assumption of oceanic crust, the results correspond to formation in the Late Cretaceous (Mesozoic). The inferred age supports the hypothesis of formation activated by the opening of the Makarov Basin during the Late Mesozoic-Cenozoic. This would make it contemporaneous with rifting of the Chukchi Border Land immediately east of the abyssal plain. The heat flow data indicate the base of the gas hydrate stability zone is located 332-367 m below the seafloor, this will help to identify the gas hydrate-related bottom simulating reflector in the future seismic survey, as already identified on the Chukchi Plateau. Further geophysical surveys, including heat flow measurements, are required to increase our understanding of the formation process and thermal mantle structure of the abyssal plain.