• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.311-323
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• 2007

The Yellow and East China seas received a vast amount of sediment $(>10^9ton/yr)$, which comes mainly from the Changjiang and Huanghe rivers of China and the Korean rivers. However, there are still no direct sedimentological-geochemical indicators, which can distinguish these two end-members (Korean and Chinese river sources) in these seas. The purpose of this study is to provide the potential geochemical-tracers enabling these river materials to be identified within the sediment load of the Yellow and East China seas. The compositions of major elements (Al, Fe, Mg, K, Ca, Na, and Ti) of Chinese and Korean river sediments were analyzed. To minimize the grain-size effect, furthermore, bulk sediments were separated into two groups, silt $(60-20{\mu}m)$ and clay $(<20{\mu}m)$ fractions, and samples of each fraction were analyzed for major and strontium isotope $(^{87}Sr/^{86}Sr)$ compositions. In this study, Fe/Al and Mg/Al ratios in bulk sediment samples, using a new Al-normalization procedure, are suggested as an excellent tool for distinguishing the source of sediments in the Yellow and East China seas. This result is clearly supported by the concentrations of these elements in silt and clay fraction samples. In silt fraction samples, Korean river sediments have much higher $^{87}Sr/^{86}Sr$ ratio $(0.7229{\sim}0.7253)$ than Chinese river sediments $(0.7169{\sim}0.7189)$, which suggests the distribution pattern of $^{87}Sr/^{86}Sr$ ratios as a new tracer to discriminate the provenance of shelf sediments in the Yellow and East China seas. On the basis of these geochemical tracers, clay fractions of southeastern Yellow Sea mud (SEYSM) patch may be a mixture of two sediments originated from Korea and China. In contrast, the geochemical compositions of silt fractions are very close to that of Korea river sediments, which indicates that the silty sediments of SEYSM are mainly originated from Korean rivers.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.92-99
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• 2005

To discriminate the provenance of shelf sediments in the East China Sea, textural and elemental compositions along with strontium isotopic ratio ($^{87}Sr/^{86}Sr$) were analyzed and compared with the sediments originated from Chinese rivers. The sediments in the study area are composed of fine-grained mud with a mean grain size of $47\;{\phi}$ and their $CaCO_3$, contents range from 3.9 to 11.5% (average 7.6%). In the study area, the content of most metallic elements are strongly constrained by sediment grain size (quartz dilution effect) and that of biogenic material and, thereby, their spatial distribution seems not enough for understanding sediment provenance in the study area. The muddy sediments of the Yangtze river have much lower $^{87}Sr/^{86}Sr$ ratio ($0.71197{\sim}0.71720$) than the Yellow Sea shelf muddy sediments which are supposed to be originated from the Huanghe river ($0.72126{\sim}0.72498$), suggesting the distribution pattern of $^{87}Sr/^{86}Sr$ ratios as a new tracer to discriminate the provenance of shelf sediments in the study area. Different source rock compositions and weathering processes between both drainage basins may account for the differences in $^{87}Sr/^{86}Sr$ ratio. Although the ratios show wide range, from 0.71445 to 0.72184 with an average 0.71747 in the study area, they are close to the values of the Yangtze river sediments, suggesting that the sediments were mainly originated from the Yangtze river. The previous studies on the dispersal pattern of modern sediments and the physico-chemical properties of seawater in the Yellow and East China seas support the possibility that the fine-grained Yangtze river sediments can reach to the East China Sea shelf as well as to the southeastern Yellow Sea.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.303-312
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• 1997

The massive, fractured and porous-type of glauconite, which is subdivided by surface morphology, occur in subtidal sand and semiconsolidated intertidal sand/mud from continental shelf of the southeastern Yellow Sea. This area is presumed to be a part of Holocene transgressive tidal systems tract. The glauconite, pellet-like grains with diameter of 0.1 to 1 mm, is scattered in surface sand sediments. Results of X-ray diffraction data of the minerals are monoclinic with $a=5.242{\AA}$, $b=9.059{\AA}$, $c=10.163{\AA}$, ${\beta}=100.5^{\circ}$, $V=474.53{\AA}^3$. Thermal treatments on the oriented glauconite increase the X-ray diffraction intensity near $10{\AA}$ (001), suggesting the presence of some expandable layers. Specific gravity of the glauconite is $2.60{\pm}0.45gm/cc$ on the basis of chemical composition and unit-cell dimensions. Based on $O_{10}(OH)_2$, chemical composition of glauconites, octahedral Fe content ranges from 1.19 to 2.06 atoms, corresponding octahedral AI is 0.18 to 0.76 atoms, which progressively substitute Fe for AI with increasing from porous to massive-type. The Mg content ranges from 0.35 to 0.54 atoms, and shows higher with increasing Al contents. A systematic increase of interlayer K from 0.34 to 0.71 is also observed with apparent increases from porous to massive-type, and related to a proportion of expandable layers. The clay preserved in glauconite, which is recognized as ordered/disordered (massive to fractured-type). The interstratified illite/smectite (porous-type), contains 7 to 27 % expandable layers. The glauconite seems to originate from post depositional authigenic growth in reducing environments promoted by the dissolution of clay minerals and biogenic debris.