• The Korean Journal of Petroleum Geology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.34-42
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• 2006

Ichnology is the study of traces made by various organisms, which includes classification and description of traces, and interpretation of sedimentary process, behavior of organism and depositional environment based on traces and organism behavior. Ichnofacies, which is defined as the association of several traces related together with substrate characteristics and sedimentary processes, is closely related to depositional environment. Ichnology has been applied to sedimentology (to understand physical characteristics of depositional environment, sedimentation pattern and event bed), sequence stratigraphy (to recognize sequence boundaries and biostratigraphic discontinuities such as MFS, TSE and RSE), oil exploration (providing of many information without big cost) and palaeocology. Preliminary ichnological study on the Ganghwa intertidal flat shows that dominant ichofacies are changing with season and location, suggesting that their seasonal variation would be a good indicator to understand the seasonal change of sedimentary processes, the small- scale change of sedimentary environment and the preservation potential of such units. Ichnology on intertidal flat in western coast of Korea has a great potential to apply its results to petroleum geology as well as sedimentology.

• The Korean Journal of Quaternary Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.13-14
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• 2003

It is generally well known that Quaternary is characteristic geologically in terms of glacial and interglacial repeats and their associated unconformity formation. This paper deals with the first finding of the characteristic and significant meaningful unconformity between Holocene and late Pleistocene, which implies submergence and emergence of the tidal sedimentary basin along the western coastal zone of Korea during interglacial stage(IOS-5e) and glacial time(IOS-2). The stratigraphy of intertidal deposits in the Haenam Bay, western coast of Korea shows two depositional sequence units (Unit I of Holocene and Unit II of late Pleistocene) bounded by an erosional surface of disconformity. The disconformity is related to the latest Pleistocene sea-level lowstands (probably during the LGM). The Unit II is interpreted as intertidal deposit showing tidal sedimentary structures and crab burrow ichnology and has two parts (the upper part and the lower part) showing different lithology and character. The upper part of Unit II shows characteristic subaerial exposure features (emergence) and its related lithology. Such subaerially exposed upper part (more or less 4m to 5m in thickness) is characterized by yellow-brownish sediment color, cryoturbat-ed structure, crab burrow ichnofacies and high value of shear strength. Geochemical and clay mineral analyses of the upper part sediments also indicate subaerial exposure and weathering. In particular, very high value of magnetic susceptibility of the upper part in comparison to that of the lower part is interpreted as pedogenetic weathering during the subaerial exposure period.