• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.80-86
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• 2016

Earthquakes of M5.1, M5.8 and M4.5 occurred in September 12 and 19 respectively in Gyeongju, Gyeongbuk Province. Theses earthquakes inflated fears of people and highlighted necessity of detailed countermeasures because we have considered our country is safe to earthquakes. In the meanwhile, earthquake also impacts groundwater and thus it was recently reported that the Gyeongju Earthquakes affected groundwater there. This study evaluates daily groundwater data collected from five national groundwater monitoring stations (Geoncheon, Sannae, Oedong, Yangbuksin, Cheonbuk) in Gyeongju. The analysis revealed that only groundwater level of bedrock monitoring well hosted in andesite exhibited earthquake impact while no wells in the other four stations hosted in sedimentary rocks showed substantial responses to the earthquakes. This may be derived from the difference of seismic velocity of hosting rocks as well as epicenter distance. Special interest on groundwater monitoring is required to predict earthquakes as precursory phenomena.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.683-691
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• 2009

Geomagnetic variation around May 2, 2009 when Angdong earthquake broke out was analyzed using the data recorded at the Cheong-yang geomagnetic observatory, KMA. Firstly, we predict the geomagnetic variation by PCA analysis of geomagnetic data, and then compare the predicted value with the observed data to find any significant differences in residuals. Secondly, wavelet semblance technique is applied to compare the time series before and after the earthquake. Some meaningful change is detected in the Z-field. Thirdly, eigen value analysis for the 3 component geomagnetic data is performed. The location of the observatory was too far from the epicenter and the magnitude was too small to find decisive precursory phenomenon. Nevertheless we can detect some significant correlation between the earthquake and the variation of the geomagnetic field. Various signal processing methods applied in this study will give some opportunity to find precursory effects in the future.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.401-414
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• 2017

To prevent the damages from earthquakes, various researches have been conducted around the world focusing on earthquake prediction and forecasting for several decades. Among various precursory phenomena, changes in groundwater level and quality are considered to be reliable for estimating the time of earthquake occurrence and its magnitude. In effects, some countries impacted by frequent earthquakes have established and operated the groundwater monitoring network for earthquake surveillance and prediction. In Korea, recently researches have begun for using groundwater monitoring techniques for earthquake prediction. In this paper, the groundwater monitoring networks of China, Japan, and the United States were reviewed focusing on the facilities and results of researches to deduce the tasks for earthquake prediction researches using groundwater monitoring techniques in Korea. In results, research needs are suggested in the implementation of groundwater monitoring networks for specifically earthquake surveillance with the real-time monitoring and the measures to quantify the degrees of abnormal changes in the relationship of distance from the earthquake epicenter.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.393-400
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• 2018

Despite some skeptical views on the possibility of earthquake prediction, observation and evaluation of precursory changes have been continued throughout the world. In Korea, the public concern on the earthquake prediction has been increased after 2016 $M_L5.8$ and 2017 $M_L5.4$ earthquakes occurred in Gyeongju and Pohang, the southeastern part in Korea, respectively. In this study, the abnormal increase of groundwater level was observed before the 2016 $M_L5.8$ Gyeongju earthquake in a borehole located in 52 km away from the epicenter. The well was installed in the Yangsan fault zone, and equipped for the earthquake surveillance. The abnormal change in the well would seem to be a precursor, considering the hydrogeological condition and the observations from previous studies. It is necessary to set up a specialized council to support and evaluate the earthquake prediction and related researches for the preparation of future earthquake hazards.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.249-255
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• 2010

Since the 1990's, a number of ULF geomagnetic disturbance associated with earthquake occurrences have actively been reported, and polarization analysis of geomagnetic fields becomes one of potential candidates to be capable of predicting short-term earthquake. This study develops the modified polarization analysis method based on the previous studies, and analyzes three-component geomagnetic fields obtained at Cheongyang geomagnetic observatory using the developed method. A daily polarization value (the ratio of spectral power of horizontal and vertical geomagnetic field) is calculated with a focus on the 0.01 Hz band, which is known to be the most sensitive to seismogenic ULF radiation. We analyze a total of 10 months of geomagnetic data obtained at Cheongyang observatory, and compare the polarization values with the Kp index and the earthquake occurred in the analysis period. The results show that there is little correlation between the temporal variations of polarization values and Kp index, but remarkable increases in polarization values are identified which are associated with two earthquakes. Comparison the polarization values obtained at Cheongyang and Kanoya observatory indicates that the increases of polarization values at Cheongyang might be due to not global geomagnetic induction but the locally occurred earthquakes. Furthermore, these features are clearly shown in normalized polarization values, which take account in the statistical characteristics of each geomagnetic field. On the basis of these results, polarization analysis can be used as promising tool for monitoring the earthquake-precursory phenomenon.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.91-96
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• 2016

From the Earth's polar motion time series (IERS 08 C04, since 1981), after removal of seasonal variation by band-pass filtering, we acquired Earth's free Eulerian motion (Chandler wobble) time series. By successive least square error fittings on it, we analyzed amplitude and phase variation of Chandler wobble. We attempted to identify any precursory behavior of the pole before large earthquakes but only to fail. Unlike Smylie's conjecture there was no appreciable motion of the Earth's pole detected at around the each times of recent six largest earthquakes of magnitude over 8.5.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.429-438
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• 2014

Recent three years of geomagnetic data were analyzed using a method of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Wavelet Based Semblance Analysis to investigate any geomagnetic variation caused by earthquakes. This method predicts the geomagnetic variation using the PCA analysis of geomagnetic data, then compares the predicted geomagnetic field with the observation of finding any significant residual. Although it is well known that geomagnetic variation is related with earthquake, most analyses have been limited to some specific cases reflecting the correlation. In this study, we analyze seventeen cases of earthquakes that occurred in and around the Korean peninsula from 2009 to 2011 and that show the precursory and co-seismic relation between the earthquakes and geomagnetic variations.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2018

The radon concentration in soil varies with environmental factors such as atmospheric temperature and pressure, rainfall and soil temperature. The effects of these factors, therefore, should be differentiate in order to analyzed the anomalous radon variation caused by earthquake events. For these reasons, a comparative analysis between the radon variations with environmental factors and the anomalous variations caused by Gyeong-ju earthquake occurred in September 12, 2016 has been conducted. Radon concentration in soil and environmental factors were continuously measured at a monitoring ste located in 58Km away from earthquake epicenter from January 01, 2014 to May 31, 2017. The co-relationships between radon concentration and environmental factors were analyzed. The seasonal average radon concentration(n) and the standard variation(${\rho}$) was calculated, and the regions of ${\pm}1{\rho}$ and ${\pm}2{\rho}$ deviations from seasonal average concentration were investigated to find the anomalous radon variation related to Gyeong-ju earthquake. Earthquake effectiveness and q-factor were also calculated. The radon concentration indicated the seasonal variation pattern, showing high in summer and low in winter. It increases with increasing air temperature and soil temperature, and has the positive co-relationships of $R^2=0.9136$ and $R^2=0.8496$, respectively. The radon concentration decreases with increasing atmospheric pressure, and has the negative co-relationships of $R^2=0.7825$. Four regions of ${\pm}2{\rho}$ deviation from average seasonal concentration (A1: 7/3~7/5, A2: 7/18, A3: 8/4~8/5, A4: 10/17~10/20) were detected before and after Gyeong-ju earthquake. A1, A2, A3 were determined as the anomalous radon variation caused by the earthquake from co-relationship analyses with environmental factors, earthquake effectiveness and q-factor. During the period of anomalous radon variation, correlation coefficients between radon concentration and environmental factors were significantly lowered compared to other periods such as air temperature ($R^2=0.2314$), soil temperature ($R^2=0.1138$) and atmospheric pressure ($R^2=0.0475$). Annual average radon concentration was also highest at 2016, the year of Gyeong-ju earthquake.