• Title/Summary/Keyword: tephra

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Eruptive mechanisms and processes at Udo tuff cone, Udo Island, Korea (우도응회과의 분출기기구와 분출과정)

  • Hwang, Sang-Koo
    • The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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    • v.1 no.2
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    • pp.91-103
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    • 1992
  • Eruptive mechanisms and processes at Udo tuff cone can be inferred from indicative characters of products, bedforms and lithofacies, and ring faults. In terms of bedforms and lithofa-cies in particular, massive lapilli tuff beds and chaotic lapilli tuff beds are derived from subaerial falls of aggregated tephra of wet tephra finger jets, occurring dominantly at the lower sequences of proximal part at the tuff cone. Crudely stratified lapilli tuff are derived from subaerial falls of slightly aggregated tephra of less wet tephra finger jets, whereas reversely graded lapilli tuff beds are from slightly disaggregated subaerial falls of continuous uprush. Both beds frequently occur in the middle sequences at proximal and near medial part of the tuff cone. Block and lapilli tephra lenses, ash-coated lapilli tephra beds(lenses) and thin-bedded tuff beds are derived from extremely disaggregated subaerial falls of dry tephra in the continuous uprush, frequently occurring at the upper sequences of medial part at the tuff cone. Udo tuff cone is a basaltic volcano emergent through the sea water surface while water could flood across or into the vent area. Emergence of the tuff cone was from the type-Surtseyan eruption characterized by earlier tephra finger jets and later continuous uprush columns of tephra with copious volumes of steam. Explosions began when boiling of wter produced a bubble column reducing the hydrostatic pres-sure, allowing exsolution of gases from the magma. This expansion of magma into a vesiculating froth fragmented the magma and permitted mixing of magma and water so that a more vigorous generation of steam could proceed. Tephra finger jetting explosions continued to build the crater rims, then remove water from the vent that their deposits flowed like slsurries until the continuous uprush explosion ensued. Continuous uprush explosions were associated with most rapid accumula-tion of tephra. The increasing volume rate led to partial removal of water from the vent area by the newly tephra ring so that more vigorous activity could be attended by a reducing water supply. This might restrain surplus of cold water entering the vent and thus enhance the vigour of the eruption by allowing optimal heat exchange. Eventually the crater became so deep and unsuported that piecemeal sliding, or massive subsidence on indipping ring faults, filled and closed the vent, and the cycle of explosions and collapse began anew.

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Geological Applications and Limitations of Regional Tephra Layers in Terrestrial Deposits in Korea (한국의 육상에서 발견되는 광역테프라층의 지질학적 활용과 한계)

  • Cheong-Bin Kim;Young-Seog Kim;Hyoun Soo Lim
    • Journal of the Korean earth science society
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    • v.43 no.6
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    • pp.680-690
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    • 2022
  • Tephrochronology uses regional tephra for age dating and stratigraphic correlations. Regional tephras are important in Quaternary geology and archaeology because they can be used as stratigraphic time-markers. In this review, identification and dating methods of tephra are summarized. In addition, the characteristics of regional tephras in terrestrial deposits of the Korean Peninsula are elaborated, and geological applications and limitations of the regional tephra layers are also discussed. So far, AT, Ata, and Kb-Ks tephra layers from Kyushu, Japan have been found in Pleistocene paleosol, marine terrace deposits, and lacustrine deposits in Korea. Also, although not officially confirmed, Aso-4 tephra is likely to occur in terrestrial deposits. The regional tephra layers are vital for dating, especially with regard to sediments over 50 ka beyond the range of radiocarbon dating, and for dating of active faults. Furthermore, it can provide important information for preparing countermeasures against volcanic disasters. However, in order to use the tephra layer geologically, it must be confirmed whether it is a primary deposit based on sedimentological study.

Occurrence and Identification of Tephra Layers found in the Ulsan area, Southeastern Korea (한국 동남부 울산 지역에서 발견되는 화산재층의 산상과 동정)

  • Kim, Cheong-Bin;Kim, Young-Seog;Lim, Hyoun Soo
    • Journal of the Korean earth science society
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    • v.42 no.1
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    • pp.55-64
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    • 2021
  • Tephrochronology is the study of tephra layers to correlate and date geologic events. As tephra layers can be used as time-markers, they are essential for the dating of Quaternary deposits. In this study, two types of tephra layers were found in the upper and lower parts of marine terrace deposits distributed in the Sanha-dong and Jeongja-dong, Ulsan areas. Based on the morphological features of glass shards, refractive indices, major element compositions, and similarity coefficients, the upper and lower tephras were identified as AT (ca. 25 ka) and Ata (ca. 105-110 ka) tephra, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first official report of Ata tephra on terrestrial deposits in Korea. These results are expected to aidin the research of the Quaternary paleoclimate, paleoenvironment, and active faults in the southeastern part of Korea.

Tephrochronology: Washing, Separation and Identification of Volcanic Glass Shard (테프라 연대학: 화산유리의 세척, 분리 및 감정)

  • Kil, Young-Woo;Cheong, Chang-Sik;Park, Se-Jin;Park, Myong-Ho
    • The Korean Journal of Petroleum Geology
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    • v.12 no.1
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    • pp.9-13
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    • 2006
  • Volcanic glass shard, which shows relatively homogeneous chemical composition in volcanic eruption materials, is used to determine ages of tephra layers and then to correlate tephra layers each other for understanding of evolution of Quaternary geomorphology. For reducing processing errors in age determination and correlation of units, amorphous glass shard should be separated carefully from soil sample through laboratory procedures such as washing, separation, and identification. Introduction of these processes in detail could be reduced errors in tephrochronology by using volcanic glass shard.

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Impact of Meteorological Wind Fields Average on Predicting Volcanic Tephra Dispersion of Mt. Baekdu (백두산 화산 분출물 확산 예측에 대기흐름장 평균화가 미치는 영향)

  • Lee, Soon-Hwan;Yun, Sung-Hyo
    • Journal of the Korean earth science society
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    • v.32 no.4
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    • pp.360-372
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    • 2011
  • In order to clarify the advection and dispersion characteristics of volcanic tephra to be emitted from the Mt. Baekdu, several numerical experiments were carried out using three-dimensional atmospheric dynamic model, Weather and Research Forecast (WRF) and Laglangian particles dispersion model FLEXPART. Four different temporally averaged meteorological values including wind speed and direction were used, and their averaged intervals of meteorological values are 1 month, 10 days, and 3days, respectively. Real time simulation without temporal averaging is also established in this study. As averaging time of meteorological elements is longer, wind along the principle direction is stronger. On the other hands, the tangential direction wind tends to be clearer when the time become shorten. Similar tendency was shown in the distribution of volcanic tephra because the dispersion of particles floating in the atmosphere is strongly associated with wind pattern. Wind transporting the volcanic tephra is divided clearly into upper and lower region and almost ash arriving the Korean Peninsula is released under 2 km high above the ground. Since setting up the temporal averaging of meteorological values is one of the critical factors to determine the density of tephra in the air and their surface deposition, reasonable time for averaging meteorological values should be established before the numerical dispersion assessment of volcanic tephra.

A Study of Stable Isotopic Variations of Antarctic Snow by Albedo Differences (알베도 변화에 의한 남극 눈 안정동위원소의 변동에 관한 연구)

  • Lee, Jeonghoon;Han, Yeongcheol;Ham, Ji-Young;Na, Un-Sung
    • Ocean and Polar Research
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    • v.37 no.2
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    • pp.141-147
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    • 2015
  • Snow albedo can be decreased if there are any impurities on the snow surface other than the snow itself. Due to the decrease of snow albedo, melting rates of surface snow can increase, which is very crucial in climate change and hydrogeology in many parts of the world. Anthropogenic black carbons caused by the incomplete combustion of fossil fuel affect snow and tephra particles generated by geologic volcanic activities reduce snow albedo. In this study, we investigated isotopic compositions for snow covered by tephra particles and compared with this with clean snow. Isotopic compositions of snow with tephra statistically show more enriched than those of clean snow (p<0.02). This can be explained by the fact that snow becomes enriched in $^{18}O$ or D relative to meltwater as melting rates are increased. In addition, the slopes of the linear regression between oxygen and hydrogen for snow with tephra and clean snow are 6.7 and 8, respectively, and the latter is similar to that of the global meteoric water line of 8. Therefore, we can conclude that snow impurities control the isotopic compositions of snow, which is very crucial in the study of climate change and hydrogeology. To quantitatively explain these observations, melting experiments and numerical approaches are required.

One-cyclic Volcanic Processes at Udo Crater, Korea (우도(牛島) 분화구(噴火口)에서의 일윤회(一輪廻) 화산과정(火山過程))

  • Hwang, Sang Koo
    • Economic and Environmental Geology
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    • v.26 no.1
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    • pp.55-65
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    • 1993
  • Udo Island, some 3 km off the coast of Sungsan Peninsula at the eastern promontory of Cheju Island, occurs in such a regular pattern on the sequences which reprent an excellent example of an eruptive cycle. The island comprises a horseshoe-shaped tuff cone, a nested cinder cone on the crater floor, and a lava delta which extends over northwest from the moat between two cones. The volcanic sequences suggest volcanic processes that start with emergent Surtseyan eruption, progress through Strombolian eruption and end with lava effusion followed by reworking of smooth tephra on the tuff cone. Eruptive environment and hydrology of vent area in the Udo tuff cone are poorly constrained because the stratigraphic units under the tuff cone are unknown. It is thoughl, however, that the tuff cone could be mainly emergent because the present cone deposits show no evidence of marine reworking, and standing body of sea water could play a great role. The emergent volcano is characterized by distinctive steam-explosivity that results primarily from a bulk interaction between rapidly ascending magma and a highly mobile slurry. The sea water gets into the vent by flooding accross or through the top or breach of tephra cone. Udo tuff cone was constructed from Surtseyan eruption which went into with tephra finger jetting activities in the early stage, late interspersed with continuous uprush activities and proceeded to only continuous uprush activities in the last. When the enclosure of the vent by a long-lived tephra barrier would prevent the flooding and thus allow the vent to dry out, the Surtseyan eruption ceased to transmit into Strombolian activities, which constructed a cinder cone on the crater floor of the tuff cone. The Strombolian eruption ceased when magma in the conduit gradually became depleted in gas. In the case of Udo, the last magmatic activity was Hawaiian-type (and/or fountain) which accumulated basalt lava delta. And then the loose tephra of the tuff cone reworked over the moat lava and the northeastern flank.

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Tephra Origin of Goryeri Archaeological Site, Milyang Area, Korea (밀양 고례리 화산 유리물질 기원 해석)

  • 김주용;양동윤;박영철
    • The Korean Journal of Quaternary Research
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    • v.13 no.1
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    • pp.35-43
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    • 1999
  • Goryeri archaeological site is located in the upstream valley of the Danjang River. The basement rocks of the area are composed of the Cretaceous to Palaeogene biotite granite (KbGr), acidic dyke (Kad), Milyang Andesite (Kma) and Jyunggagsan Formation. Among them Milyang Andesite and Jyunggagsan Formation are prevailed in archaeological site and they are composed of reddish brown tuffaceous shale, sandstone and conglomerate, with intercalations of acidic tuffs and lapilli tuffs. The purpose of this research is not only to compare REE pattern of the soil-sedimentary deposits with those of surrounding rocks, but also to identify vitric tephra in the soil-sedimentary deposits derived from the andesite, acidic tuff and lapilii tuff, in order to illucidate the provenance of the vitric tephra. The rare earth element(REE) of the soils and sedimentary deposits results in the same REE pattern with those analyzed from the surrounding basement rocks. This indicates that the soils and sedimentary deposits are originated from the surrounding basement rocks, most probably from the andesite and lapilli tuff. In addition, vitric tephra were identified both in the Quaternary in-situ weathered soils and sedimentary deposits (PMU-13 and PMU-17), and in the weathered surrounding lapilli tuff. These vitric tephra are considered to be different from those of Japanese AT(Aira Tanzawa) -tephra. The latter is predominant with clean, platty, bubble-walled and Y-shaped vitrics, while the former is conspicuous with those shapes of large and diverse size and devitrified, as well as having secondarily bubbled-surfaces reflecting surface weathering. The size of vitric fragments in the Goryeri site is about 300${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ and large in size in compasion to 150${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ of Japanese AT-Tephra. The interim results of the research are contradictary to the explanations based on a series of AT-tephra researches carried by Japanese scholar. In short, the vitric materials of the Goryeri archaeological site are most probably originated from the weathering products of the surrounding basement rocks, and are different from the AT-tephra in their size, shape and devitrification properties. Thus it is highly recommended to have a further comprehensive research which is more emphasized the magmatic genesis of these vitric tephra in addition to the external shape and morphology.

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Stratigraphy of Late Quaternary Core Sediments and Comparative Study of the Tephra Layers from the Northwestern Ulleung Basin of the East Sea (울릉분지 북서부 해역의 코어퇴적물에 대한 제4기 후기 테프라 층서 및 테프라층 비교 연구)

  • 김일수;박명호;류병재
    • Economic and Environmental Geology
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    • v.36 no.3
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    • pp.225-232
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    • 2003
  • Three piston cores. obtained from the northwestern Ulleung Basin of the East Sea, are analyzed to study the tephrostratigraphy of the late Quaternary core sediments and to reveal the comparative characteristics of the tephra layers. The cores consist mainly of the muddy sediments that are partly interbedded with lapilli tephra and ash layers. The muds are further divided into hemipelagic and turbiditic mud facies. The hemipelagic facies is dominated by bioturbated mud and crudely laminated mud, whereas the turbiditic facies includes mainly thinly laminated mud and homogeneous mud, and often alternates with non-turbiditic muds. According to microscopic observation and EDX analysis, three tephra layers of the Ulleung-Oki (U-Oki; ca. 9.3 ka), Aira-Tanzawa (AT: ca. 22~24.7 ka) and Ulleung-Yamato (U-Ym; ca. 25~33 ka) are identified in the study cores. Among these, the U-Oki and U-Ym layers, originating from the Ulleung Island, consist mainly of massive-type glass shards with alkali feldspar. Both of the tephra layers contain a lower content of SiO$_2$ (57~66.5 wt.%) and a higher content of Na$_2$O+K$_2$O (11~16 wt.%) than the AT layer (SiO$_2$=75~78.5 wt.%, Na$_2$O+K$_2$O=6.5~9 wt.%) that consists of typical plane-type and/or bubble-wall glass grains. Compared with that of the U-Ym layer, a sedimentary facies of the U-Oki layer is very thick and contains three stratigraphic units, probably due to relatively large and different supplies of pyroclastic sediments. Thus, the eruption of Ulleung Volcano (ca. 7,300 B.C.) is thought to have had a more powerful effect on depositional environment than the U-Ym eruption.

Characteristics of Core Sedimentary Facies at the Ulleung Basin in the East Sea of Korea (한국 동해 울릉분지 코어 퇴적상 특성)

  • Lee, Byoung-Kwan;Lee, Su-Woong;Kim, Hong-Tae;Kim, Seok-Yun
    • Journal of Environmental Science International
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    • v.20 no.7
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    • pp.829-837
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    • 2011
  • A study on the grain size change, sedimentary facies and age indicator of volcanic tephra was analysis through four cores (P1 ~ P4) at the Ulleung Basin in the East Sea of Korea. The two cores (P1 and P2) were collected in the northeastern side of the Ulleung Basin (about 2,000 m in water depth), while the other two cores (P3 and P4) with the water depth of about 1,500 m and 1,700 m, respectively, were collected from the continental slope of the southwestern and western side of the Ulleung Basin. Four sedimentary facies and eight sedimentary subfacies were identified. The four facies were massive sand, bioturbated mud, homogeneous mud, and laminated mud. The eight subfacies were further divided as pumiceous ash massive sand, scorieaous massive sand, plain bioturbated mud, pyrite filamented bioturbated mud, distinctly laminated mud, indistinctly laminated mud, thinly laminated mud and homogeneous mud. The homogeneous mud was not found in the core of P3 which is located in the western side of Ulleung Basin (close to the Korean coast). In the case of laminated mud facies, the thinly laminated mud facies was dominated in the lower part of core sequences of the Ulleung Basin (P1 and P2), while the indistinctly laminated mud were overally distributed in the core sequences from the continental slope of Ulleung Basin. The Tephra layers from the core sequences of central Ulleung Basin were more dominated and distinctive than those from the core sequences of continental slope. This is related to the distance from the volcanic source and the amount of sediment supply. The core locations of Ulleung-Oki Tephra layers in the central Ulleung Basin were in the upper part of core sequences, while those in the continental slope were in the lower part of core sequences. This is indicated that the amounts of sediment supply in the continental slope after the Ulleung-Oki eruption were very high and different sedimentary environment between upper and lower of Tephra layer.