• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.479-490
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• 2016

Seabed drilling system has recently been used to drill seafloor mineral resources. This case report highlights the procedure and result of sea-trial of seabed drilling system at off-shore of Japan on March, 2016 as well as briefs an international-technical trend of seabed drilling system. In case of having less than 100 m drill depth, seabed drilling system is favorable for seafloor mineral deposits which are mostly distributed within a narrow district and situated between 1000~3000 m water depth, compared with vessel-mounted drilling system. The system is featured by the remotely-operated drill gear, which has top drives, drill strings and mud system on it. The core samples are generally recovered to ship with seabed driller after a dive. In this sea-trail, recovery rate of core samples averagely shows about 55% and the recovered rocks mostly correspond to fresh and/or weak-altered basalt. In case of drilling hydrothermal ore deposit, the recovery rate would be lower than 55% because of the fragile nature of ores. Alternatively it is used to collect cutting chips through riser or bins in order to increase the recovery rates. Recently a reverse circulation method is taken considered to acquire the better cutting-chips. Three-leg type outrigger system and four-leg type leveling system are the competing landing-instruments of seabed drill system. However the landing efficiency using these gears has to be further monitored due to lack of case reports.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.165-173
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• 2009

The physical properties of a seafloor sediment have been used as a basic data for the ocean survey. Conventional methods such as a coring, a drilling, and a grabbing have been used to explore the physical properties but these methods have a number of shortcomings as it is time consuming, expensive and spatially limited. To overcome these limitations, seafloor sediment classification using acoustic signals has been studied actively. In this paper, we obtained the backscattered signal from the seafloor sediment using an echo sounder which is one kind of seafloor topography equipment. Nakagami probability density function of the backscattered signals from the seafloor sediment was computed and a Nakagami parameter was compared with the physical properties of the seafloor sediment. We have confirmed that Nakagami parameter, m is correlated with the physical properties of a seafloor sediment. This study will be utilized as a basic data of the seafloor sediment research.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.663-666
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• 2005

Gas hydrates are ice-like compounds that form at the low temperature and high pressure conditions common in shallow marine sediments at water depths greater than 300-500 m when concentrations of methane and other hydrocarbon gases exceed saturation. Estimates of the total mass of methane carbon that resides in this reservoir vary widely. While there is general agreement that gas hydrate is a significant component of the global near-surface carbon budget, there is considerable controversy about whether it has the potential to be a major source of fossil fuel in the future and whether periods of global climate change in the past can be attributed to destabilization of this reservoir. Also essentially unknown is the interaction between gas hydrate and the subsurface biosphere. ODP Leg 204 was designed to address these questions by determining the distribution, amount and rate of formation of gas hydrate within an accretionary ridge and adjacent basin and the sources of gas for forming hydrate. Additional objectives included identification of geologic proxies for past gas hydrate occurrence and calibration of remote sensing techniques to quantify the in situ amount of gas hydrate that can be used to improve estimates where no boreholes exist. Leg 204 also provided an opportunity to test several new techniques for sampling, preserving and measuring gas hydrates. During ODP Leg 204, nine sites were drilled and cored on southern Hydrate Ridge, a topographic high in the accretionary complex of the Cascadia subduction zone, located approximately 80km west of Newport, Oregon. Previous studies of southern Hydrate Ridge had documented the presence of seafloor gas vents, outcrops of massive gas hydrate, and a pinnacle' of authigenic carbonate near the summit. Deep-towed sidescan data show an approximately $300\times500m$ area of relatively high acoustic backscatter that indicates the extent of seafloor venting. Elsewhere on southern Hydrate Ridge, the seafloor is covered with low reflectivity sediment, but the presence of a regional bottom-simulating seismic reflection (BSR) suggests that gas hydrate is widespread. The sites that were drilled and cored during ODP Leg 204 can be grouped into three end-member environments basedon the seismic data. Sites 1244 through 1247 characterize the flanks of southern Hydrate Ridge. Sites 1248-1250 characterize the summit in the region of active seafloor venting. Sites 1251 and 1252 characterize the slope basin east of Hydrate Ridge, which is a region of rapid sedimentation, in contrast to the erosional environment of Hydrate Ridge. Site 1252 was located on the flank of a secondary anticline and is the only site where no BSR is observed.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.455-461
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• 2014

The Honam-Jeju, Korea-Japan, and Korea-China subsea tunnel construction projects have drawn significant attention since the early 2000s. These subsea tunnels are much deeper than most existing natural shallow sea tunnels linking coastal areas. Thus, the need for developing new technologies for the site selection and construction of deep subsea tunnels has recently emerged, with the launch of a research project titled "Development of Key Subsea Tunnelling Technology" in 2013. A component of this research, an analysis of deep subsea geological structure, is currently underway. A ground investigation, such as a borehole or geophysical investigation, is generally carried out for tunnel design. However, when investigating a potential site for a deep subsea tunnel, borehole drilling requires equipment at the scale of offshore oil drilling. The huge cost of such an undertaking has raised the urgent need for methods to indirectly assess the local geological structure as much as possible to limit the need for repeated borehole investigations. This study introduces an indirect approach for assessing the geological structure of the seafloor through a submarine bathymetry analysis. The ultimate goal here is to develop an automated approach to the analysis of submarine geological structures, which may prove useful in the selection of future deep subsea tunnel sites.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.531-533
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• 2007

We report and discuss molecular and isotopic properties of hydrate-bound gases from 55 samples and void gases from 494 samples collected during Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 204 at Hydrate Ridge offshore Oregon. Gas hydrates appear to crystallize in sediments from two end-member gas sources (deep allochthonous and in situ) as mixtures of different proportions. In an area of high gas flux at the Southern Summit of the ridge (Sites 1248-1250), shallow (0-40 meters below the seafloor (mbsf)) gas hydrates are composed of mainly allochthonous mixed microbial and thermogenic methane and a small portion of thermogenic C2+ gases, which migrated vertically and laterally from as deep as 2-2.5 km depths. In contrast, deep (50-105 mbsf) gas hydrates at the Southern Summit (Sites 1248 and 1250) and on the flanks of the ridge (Sites 1244-1247) crystallize mainly from microbial methane and ethane generated dominantly in situ. A small contribution of allochthonous gas may also be present at sites where geologic and tectonic settings favor vertical gas migration from greater depth (e.g., Site 1244).

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.635-646
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• 2000

Geological achievements of the 20th century revolutionized our views about geological understanding and concept. A good example is the concept of continental drift suggested early in the 20th century and later explained in terms of seafloor spreading and plate tectonics. Our understanding of the compositions of materials forming earth has also improved during the20th century. Radio and stable isotopes together with biostratigraphy and sequence stratigraphy allow us to interpret the evolution of sedimentary basins in terms of plate movement and sedimentation processes. The Deep Sea Drilling Project initiated in 1960s and continued as the Ocean Drilling Project in 1980s is one of the most successful international research observations, and new developments in computational techniques have provided a wholly new view about the interior of the earth. Most of the geological features and phenomena observed in deep sea and around continental margins are now explained in terms of global tectonic processes such as superplumes flowing up from the interior of our planet and interacting with such as Rodinia Pannotia and Nena back in the Precambrian time. The space explorations which began in the late 1950s opened up a new path to astrogeology, astrobiology, and astropaleontology. The impact theory rooted in the discovery of iridium and associated phenomena in 1980s revived Cuvier's catastrophism as a possible explanation for the extinctions of biotas found in the geological record of this planet. Due to the geological achievements made in the 20th century, we now have a better understanding of geologic times and processes that were too long to be grasped by human records.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.24-36
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• 2019

In the mid-eastern Yellow Sea, glacio-eustatic sea-level fluctuations and a regional tectonic subsidence have combined to represent an aggradational stacking pattern of sedimentary units during late Pleistocene-Holocene. The accumulated sediments are divisible into two-type units of Type-A and Type-B in high-resolution air-gun seismic profiles and the deep-drilled core of YSDP-105. Type-A unit largely comprises clast-rich coarse-grained sediments of non-marine to paralic origin, whereas Type-B unit consists mostly of tidal fine-grained sediments. Based on a bottom model of the sedimentary units, this study suggested a geoacoustic model of long-coring bottom layers at the YSDP-105 drilling site of the mid-eastern Yellow Sea. The geoacoustic model of 64-m depth below the seafloor with four-layer geoacoustic units was reconstructed in continental shelf strata at 45 m in water depth. For actual modeling, the geoacoustic property values of the models were compensated to in situ depth values below the seafloor using the Hamilton modeling method. We suggest that the geoacoustic model will be used for geoacoustic and underwater acoustic experiments of mid- and low-frequency reflecting on the deep bottom layers in the mid-eastern Yellow Sea.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.154-163
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• 2018

Geoacoustic model comprises physical and acoustic properties of submarine bottom layers influencing sound transmission through sea water and underwater. This study suggested for the first time that we made a geoacoustic model of long-coring bottom layers at the SSDP-105 drilling site of the Ulsan coastal area, which is located in the southwestern inner shelf of the East Sea. The geoacoustic model of 52 m depth below seafloor with three-layer geoacoustic units was reconstructed in the coastal sedimentary strata at 79 m in water depth. The geoacoustic model was based on the data of a deep-drilled sediment core of SSDP-105 and sparker seismic profiles in the study area. For actual modeling, the geoacoustic property values of the models were compensated to in situ depth values below the sea floor using the Hamilton modeling method. We suggest that the geoacoustic model be used for geoacoustic and underwater acoustic experiments of mid- and low-frequency reflecting on the deep bottom layers in the Ulsan coastal area of the East Sea.