• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.261-272
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• 2014

Over the last three decades, advances in AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry) and Noble Gas Mass Spectrometer make various application of terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides (CNs) to wide range of earth surface sciences possible. Dating techniques can be divided into three sub-approaches: simple surface exposure dating, depth-profile dating, and burial dating, depending on the condition of targeted surfaces. In terms of Korean landscape view, CNs dating can be applied to fluvial and marine terrace, alluvial fan, tectonic landform (fault scarp and faulted surfaces), debris landforms such as rock fall, talus, block field and stream, lacustrine and marine wave-cut platform, cave deposits, Pliocene basin fill and archaeological sites. In addition, in terms of lithology, the previous limit to quartz-rich rocks such as granite and gneiss can be expanded to volcanic and carbonate rocks with the help of recent advances in CNs analysis in those rocks.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.31-40
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• 2022

Background: Plant vegetation appears in heterogeneous and patchy forms in arid and semi-arid regions. In these regions, underneath the plant patches and the empty spaces between them are covered by biological soil crusts (moss, lichen, cyanobacteria, and fungi). Biological soil crusts lead to the formation and development of fertile islands in between vegetation patches via nitrogen and carbon fixation and the permeation of runoff water and nutrients in the soil. Results: The present study has investigated the association of biological soil crusts, the development of fertile islands, and the formation of plant patches in part of the Takht-e Soltan protected area, located in Khorasan Razavi Province, Iran. Three sites were randomly selected as the working units and differentiated based on their geomorphological characteristics to the alluvial fan, hillslope, and fluvial terrace landforms. Two-step systematic random sampling was conducted along a 100-meter transect using a 5 m² plot at a 0-5 cm depth in three repetitions. Fifteen samplings were carried out at each site with a total of 45 samples taken. The results showed that the difference in altitude has a significant relationship with species diversity and decreases with decreasing altitude. Results have revealed that the moisture content of the site, with biocrust has had a considerable increase compared to the other sites, helping to form vegetation patterns and fertile islands. Conclusions: The findings indicated that biological crusts had impacted the allocation of soil parameters. They affect the formation of plant patches by increasing the soil's organic carbon, nitrogen, moisture and nutrient content provide a suitable space for plant growth by increasing the soil fertility in the inter-patch space.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.29-64
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• 1973

A land resources survey in the semi-arid area, Mula in S. E. Spain, of $400km^2$ is compiled. The basic aim of the project is to investigate the intrinsic qualities of the land resources of the area by means of applying an integrated method of natural resources survey mainly concerning with analysis and synthesis of land complexes, each of them represents an area or a group of areas with similar patterns of landforms, soils and vegetation, based on a geomorphological approach. The area is characterized by a linear arrangement of relief pattern with an asymmetric homoclinal repetition of slope attitudes elongating WSW-ENE, dipping steeply on the NW sides and gently on the SE sides, which have been resulted from the post-Alpine folding of the Triassic to Cretaceous limestone, the Eocene limestone, the Oligocene sandstone and the lower Miocene limestone and marl, and the post-lower Miocene faulting, tilting and subsequent differential erosion of the Miocene sedimentary formations. An integrated body of information in geology, landforms, soils and vegetation, which are significantry interrelated as an environmental complex, has been obtained. Using this data, 26 land complexes developing on the various situations of landforms, such as folded mountain ranges, tilted tablelands, bevelled cuestas, degraded hill-lands associating with enormous foots lopes, undulating terrains and terraced or flat plains, have been differentiated, mapped and described. The soils of the area are mostly light colored calcic lithosols which have been derived dominantly from the marly parent materials and developed into remarkable slope catenas in some places depending on the relief conditions. The land uses of the area are mainly characterized by the perennially irrigated cultivation of citrus orchards along the terraced alluvial deposits fringing the Segura and Mula River, and the dry-land cereal cultivation on gentler slopes. Pioneer dry-land cultivations within the shrubs on steeper slopes are restricted to the unchannelled tributary drainage floors. The availability of water is a fundamental controlling factor for existence of native and cultivated vegetation as a whole, and a number of active processes including sheet wash and gully erosion, especially on the scarp slopes, are the other important factors to be considered in conservation and management of the land in the area.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.775-790
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• 2008

This study shows possibility of active fault, throughout analyzing distributional features of tectonic and fluvial geomorphology and mineral composition of fault fracture clay, at Jinbu fault-line system in Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon Province. Fault-line valley was formed remarkably in the upper reaches of Odae River and upper reaches of Yeongok River according along Jinbu fault-line. Landforms show rectilineal distribution at right shore slopes of Odae River in Ganpyeong-ri, southern zone of Jinbu fault-line system, related to the tectonic processes, such as triangular facet, kernbut, kerncol and alluvial fan. Fault fracture clay zones were developed at 5 outcrops($jbf1{\sim}5$), located in kerncol. Particularly, jbf1 fault outcrop, developed at granite saprolite, has obvious fault plane and fault clay composed of illite and laumontite. The Jinbu Fault-line along jbf4-2-3-5 may be formed by regional compressive stress, and jbf1 fault may be suggested a tributary fault of the Jinbu fault-line formed before the late Pleistocene. The vertical displacement of the east and west blocks of the Jinbu Fault-line is estimated in $0.024{\sim}0.027m/ka$.