• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.15-24
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• 2011

To clarify the distribution of joints and fracture zones in the Cheongju granitic mass, we analyzed drill-core and geophysical well-logging data obtained at two boreholes located 30 m from each other. Lithological properties were investigated from the drill-core data and the samples were classified based on the rock mass rating (RMR) and on rock quality designation (RQD). Subsurface discontinuities within soft and hard rocks were examined by geophysical well-logging and cross-hole seismic tomography. The velocity structures constructed from seismic tomography are well correlated with the profile of bedrock depth, previously mapped from a seismic refraction survey. Dynamic elastic moduli, obtained from full waveform sonic and ${\gamma}-{\gamma}$ logging, were interrelated with P-wave velocities to investigate the dynamic properties of the rock mass. Compared with the correlation graph between elastic moduli and velocities for hard rock at borehole BH-1, the correlation points for BH-2 data showed a wide scatter. These scattered points reflect the greater abundance of joints and fractures near borehole BH-2. This interpretation is supported by observations by acoustic televiewer (ATV) and optical televiewer (OTV) image loggings.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.27 no.spc
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• pp.19-33
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• 2022

When subsurface is polluted, contaminants tend to migrate through groundwater flow path. The groundwater flow path is highly dependent upon underground geological structures in the contaminated area. Geophysical survey is an useful tool to identify subsurface geological structure. In addition, geophysical logging in a borehole precisely provides detailed information about geological characteristics in vicinity of the borehole, including fractures, lithology, and groundwater level. In this work, surface seismic refraction and electrical resistivity surveys were conducted in a test site located in Namyangju city, South Korea, along with well logging tests in five boreholes installed in the site. Geophysical data and well logging data were collected and processed to construct an 3D geological map in the site.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.24-30
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• 2010

This study utilises repeated numerical tests to understand the effects of variable near-surface conditions on time-lapse seismic surveys. The numerical tests were aimed at reproducing the significant scattering observed in field experiments conducted at the Naylor site in the Otway Basin for the purpose of $CO_2$ sequestration. In particular, the variation of elastic properties of both the top soil and the deeper rugose clay/limestone interface as a function of varying water saturation were investigated. Such tests simulate the measurements conducted in dry and wet seasons and to evaluate the contribution of these seasonal variations to seismic measurements in terms of non-repeatability. Full elastic pre-stack modelling experiments were carried out to quantify these effects and evaluate their individual contributions. The results show that the relatively simple scattering effects of the corrugated near-surface clay/limestone interface can have a profound effect on time-lapse surveys. The experiments also show that the changes in top soil saturation could potentially affect seismic signature even more than the corrugated deeper surface. Overall agreement between numerically predicted and in situ measured normalised root-mean-square (NRMS) differences between repeated (time-lapse) 2D seismic surveys warrant further investigation. Future field studies will include in situ measurements of the elastic properties of the weathered zone through the use of 'micro Vertical Seismic Profiling (VSP)' arrays and very dense refraction surveys. The results of this work may impact on other areas not associated with $CO_2$ sequestration, such as imaging oil production over areas where producing fields suffer from a karstic topography, such as in the Middle East and Australia.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.465-473
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• 2018

The application of singular value decomposition (SVD) filtering is examined for attenuation of the ground-roll in land seismic data. Prior to the SVD computation to seek singular values containing the highly correlatable reflection energy, processing steps such as automatic gain control, elevation and refraction statics, NMO correction, and residual statics are performed to enhance the horizontal correlationships and continuities of reflections. Optimal parameters of SVD filtering are effectively chosen with diagnostic display of inverse NMO (INMO) corrected CSP (common shot point) gather. On the field data with dispersion of ground-roll overwhelmed, continuities of reflection events are much improved by SVD filtering than f-k filtering by eliminating the ground-roll with preserving the low-frequency reflections. This is well explained in the average amplitude spectra of the f-k and SVD filtered data. The reflectors including horizontal layer of the reservoir are much clearer on the stack section, with laminated events by SVD filtering and subsequent processing steps of spiking deconvolution and time-variant spectral whitening.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2000.09a
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• pp.132-146
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• 2000

Seismic refraction survey was performed for 10 lines along NE-SW and NW-SE directions above Nampoong gallery at Makyo-ri, Dogye, Samcheok, Kangwon-do. 48 geophones were laid in line with the interval of 1m, and a 5Kg hammer was used as a source at 5 points for each line. Data processing was done using reciprocal time method, GRM, and traveltime tomography which utilizes wavefront expansion method for forward process and STRT for inversion. The result shows that the first layer has its lower boundary between 3.49m and 8.88m. The P-wave velocity of the first and the second layer were estimated as 270${\~}$360m/s and 1550${\~}$1940m/s respectively. When the boundary of the first and second layer is smooth enough and the velocity difference is large enough, GRM has little advantage over reciprocal time method. The result of reciprocal method and traveltime tomography shows consistency. The northeast part of the boundary has syncline structure, which is similar to the topography above. This implies that the collapse of the cavities of Nampoong gallery result in the subsidence of the ground surface. The subsidence is in progress across the Youngdong railroad, therefore a proper reinforcement work is required.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.507-522
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• 2021

Specific survey objectives often cannot be met using only one geophysical method, as each method's results are influenced by the specific physical properties of subsurface materials. In particular, areas susceptible to geological hazards require investigation using more than one method in order to reduce risks to life and property. Instead of analyzing the results from each method separately, this work develops a four-quadrant criterion for classifying areas of levees as safe or weak. The assessment is based on statistically determined thresholds of seismic velocity (P-wave velocity from seismic refraction and S-wave velocity from multichannel analysis of surface waves) and electrical resistivity. Thresholds are determined by subtracting the standard deviation from the mean during performance testing of this correlation technique applied to model data of four horizontal and inclined fracture zones. Compared with results from the crossplot of resistivity and P-wave velocity, crossplot analysis using resistivity and S-wave velocity data provides more reliable information on the soil type, ground stiffness, and lithological characteristics of the levee system. A loose and sandy zone (represented by low S-wave velocity and high resistivity) falling within the second quadrant is interpreted to be a weak zone. This interpretation is well supported by the N values from standard penetrating test for the central core.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.39 no.4 s.179
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• pp.369-384
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• 2006

Korean Peninsula, located on the southeastern part of Eurasian plate, belongs to the intraplate region. The characteristics of intraplate earthquake show the low and rare seismicity and the sparse and irregular distribution of epicenters comparing to interplate earthquake. To evaluate the exact seismic activity in intraplate region, long-term seismic data including historical earthquake data should be archived. Fortunately the long-term historical earthquake records about 2,000 years are available in Korea Peninsula. By the analysis of this historical and instrumental earthquake data, seismic activity was very high in 16-18 centuries and is more active at the Yellow sea area than East sea area. Comparing to the high seismic activity of the north-eastern China in 16-18 centuries, it is inferred that seismic activity in two regions shows close relationship. Also general trend of epicenter distribution shows the SE-NW direction. In Korea Peninsula, the first seismic station was installed at Incheon in 1905 and 5 additional seismic stations were installed till 1943. There was no seismic station from 1945 to 1962, but a World Wide Standardized Seismograph was installed at Seoul in 1963. In 1990, Korean Meteorological Adminstration(KMA) had established centralized modem seismic network in real-time, consisted of 12 stations. After that time, many institutes tried to expand their own seismic networks in Korea Peninsula. Now KMA operates 35 velocity-type seismic stations and 75 accelerometers and Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources operates 32 and 16 stations, respectively. Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety and Korea Electric Power Research Institute operate 4 and 13 stations, consisted of velocity-type and accelerometer. In and around the Korean Peninsula, 27 intraplate earthquake mechanisms since 1936 were analyzed to understand the regional stress orientation and tectonics. These earthquakes are largest ones in this century and may represent the characteristics of earthquake in this region. Focal mechanism of these earthquakes show predominant strike-slip faulting with small amount of thrust components. The average P-axis is almost horizontal ENE-WSW. In north-eastern China, strike-slip faulting is dominant and nearly horizontal average P-axis in ENE-WSW is very similar with the Korean Peninsula. On the other hand, in the eastern part of East Sea, thrust faulting is dominant and average P-axis is horizontal with ESE-WNW. This indicate that not only the subducting Pacific Plate in east but also the indenting Indian Plate controls earthquake mechanism in the far east of the Eurasian Plate. Crustal velocity model is very important to determine the hypocenters of the local earthquakes. But the crust model in and around Korean Peninsula is not clear till now, because the sufficient seismic data could not accumulated. To solve this problem, reflection and refraction seismic survey and seismic wave analysis method were simultaneously applied to two long cross-section traversing the southern Korean Peninsula since 2002. This survey should be continuously conducted.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.26-33
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• 2008

The analysis of wide-angle seismic reflection and refraction data plays an important role in lithospheric-scale crustal structure study. However, it is extremely difficult to develop an appropriate velocity structure model directly from the observed data, and we have to improve the structure model step by step, because the crustal structure analysis is an intrinsically non-linear problem. There are several subjective processes in wide-angle crustal structure modelling, such as phase identification and trial-and-error forward modelling. Because these subjective processes in wide-angle data analysis reduce the uniqueness and credibility of the resultant models, it is important to reduce subjectivity in the analysis procedure. From this point of view, we describe two software tools, PASTEUP and MODELING, to be used for developing crustal structure models. PASTEUP is an interactive application that facilitates the plotting of record sections, analysis of wide-angle seismic data, and picking of phases. PASTEUP is equipped with various filters and analysis functions to enhance signal-to-noise ratio and to help phase identification. MODELING is an interactive application for editing velocity models, and ray-tracing. Synthetic traveltimes computed by the MODELING application can be directly compared with the observed waveforms in the PASTEUP application. This reduces subjectivity in crustal structure modelling because traveltime picking, which is one of the most subjective process in the crustal structure analysis, is not required. MODELING can convert an editable layered structure model into two-way traveltimes which can be compared with time-sections of Multi Channel Seismic (MCS) reflection data. Direct comparison between the structure model of wide-angle data with the reflection data will give the model more credibility. In addition, both PASTEUP and MODELING are efficient tools for handling a large dataset. These software tools help us develop more plausible lithospheric-scale structure models using wide-angle seismic data.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.109-120
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• 2012

In marine site surveys, drilling boreholes are restrictively conducted, while geophysical surveys are used with ease. To overcome the limitations of marine site survey, various site survey data should be collected and analysed by adopting complementary pros and cons. In this study, the integration assessment was established to digitize 2D geo-layer based on the overlapping of a few borehole data to seismic refraction tomography and to determine 3D geo-information based on the kriging for the design of offshore-foundation. And the overlapping method was proposed considering spatial variability of the tomography and separation distance from borehole position to determine the 2D geo-layer. Finally, the integration assessment was applied to offshore wind-turbine site in Jeju-do, and its applicability was verified based on the cross-validation.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.525-534
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• 2014

Environmental problems typically occurring in abandoned mine lands (AML) include: contaminated and acidic surface water and groundwater; stockpiled waste rock and mill tailings; and ground subsidences due to mining operations. This study examines the effectiveness of various geophysical techniques for mapping potential hazard and contaminated zones. Four AML sites with sedimentation contamination problems, acid mine drainage (AMD) channels, ground subsidence, manmade liner leakage, and buried mine tailings, were selected to examine the applicability of various geophysical methods to the identification of the different types of mine hazards. Geophysical results were correlated to borehole data (core samples, well logs, tomographic profiles, etc.) and water sample data (pH, electrical conductivity (EC), and heavy metal contents). Zones of low electrical resistivity (ER) corresponded to areas contaminated by heavy metals, especially contamination by Cu, Pb, and Zn. The main pathways of AMD leachate were successfully mapped using ER methods (low anomaly peaks), self-potential (SP) curves (negative peaks), and ground penetrating radar (GPR) at shallow penetration depths. Mine cavities were well located based on composite interpretations of ER, seismic tomography, and well-log records; mine cavity locations were also observed in drill core data and using borehole image processing systems (BIPS). Damaged zones in buried manmade liners (used to block descending leachate) were precisely detected by ER mapping, and buried rock waste and tailings piles were characterized by low-velocity zones in seismic refraction data and high-resistivity zones in the ER data.