• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.133-145
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• 2020

Soil in mine waste-rock fields, and at the pithead, sediments and farmlands around an abandoned mine in the Chungcheong Province of South Korea were investigated to assess the distribution of metallic elements and to understand the scope of the pollution. Reddening was observed from the mine up to a distance of 61 m. Losses of waste rock around the mine were assessed over a section of 1800 ㎥. Yellowish precipitates on the bottom of a stream were identified as ferrihydrite and goethite. For anions, a mean sulfate ion level over 773.6 mg/L was found during August in the river water samples. Mine drainage at the site was shown to have a pH of 4.9 and a sulfate concentration of 1557.8 mg/L during the August rainy season. A possible cause of the metallic element contamination in the mine is waste-rock loss, because mine waste-rock is located on the slope in this area. In conclusion, the total soil area to be treated, based on the amount that exceeded the recommended Korean soil pollution levels, was assessed to be 10,297 ㎡.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.317-336
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• 1992

The garden soils, main road dusts, residential road dusts, and playground soils/dusts of Seoul, Geumsan, Onsan, and Taebaek areas were analyzed in order to investigate the level of heavy metal pollution by urbanization and industrialization. The soil pH is in the range of 5.48~8.40 and was generally neutral. The color of soils and dusts is mainly Raw Umber to dark greyish Raw Umber. Some samples from Taebaek city, a coal mining area, showed a deep black color due to contamination by coal dusts. Major minerals of the dusts and soils are quartz, feldspars, and micas, reflecting the composition of the parent rocks. However, pyrite was found as a major mineral in the samples of industrial road dusts of Onsan, a smelting area, and resicential road dusts of Taebaek. Thus, the high level of heavy metals in mining and smelting areas can be explained with the sulfide minerals. The mode of occurences of heavy metals in Seoul, a comprehensive urbanized area, were related to the metallic pollutants and organic materials through observation by scanning eletron microscopy. In main road and residential road dusts of Onsan area, Cd, Zn, and Cu were extremely high. Some industrial road and residential road dusts of Seoul area showed high Cu, Zn, and Pb contents, wereas some garden soils and residential road dusts of Taebaek area were high in As content. In general, the heavy metal contents in dust samples were two to three times higher than those in soil samples. Main road dust samples were the most reflective from the discriminant analysis of multi-element data. Cadmium, Sb, and Se in Onsan area, As in Taebaek area, Pb and Te in Seoul area were most characteristic in discriminating the studied areas. Therefore, Cd in smelting areas, As in coal mining areas, and Pb in metropolitan areas can be suggested as the characteristic elements of each pollution pattern. The dispersion of heavy metal elements in urban areas tends to orignate in main roads and deposit in garden soils through the atmosphere and residential roads. The heavy metal contamination in Seoul is characteristic in areas with high population, factory, road, and traffic decsities. Heavy metal contents are high in the vicinity of smelters in Onsan area and are decayed to background levels from one kilometer away from the smelters.