Abstract
Studies based on field observation and laboratory analysis of the littoral sands of beaches in Jeju Island indicate that the shores exhibit a great variation in both the beach geometry and the composition in terms of geological agents. Most of the beaches around the Island are developed in relatively small patches and discontinuous, as the result of intervening sea cliffs and rocky headlands. The sand quality and the dimensions of the beaches in the Island are relatively poor; for example, these beaches are 220~2,780m in length, 41~313m in width, and $7^{\circ}$ steepness in average foreshore slope. According to the textural parameters analysis, the beach sediments in study portion shows medium grained ($average\;1.42{\phi}$), moderately well sorted ($average\;0.65{\phi}$) and negative skewed ($average\;0.34{\phi}$), which seems to reflecting a high energy marine depositional environment. The heavy and light minerals of te beach sediments are composed of quartz, volcanic fragments, Na-Ca feldspar, olivine, augite as major constituents, along with apatite, biotite and other minor components, which originates from the adjacent geology. The content of CaO-MgO in shell fragments of the littoral sands ranged from 4.69~51.96%, suggesting that the high CaO-MgO content in some of the Island's beaches is attributable to geologic environments conducive to the growth of shell organisms and sediments migration. The provenance of the sediments studied are derived predominantly from adjacent continental shelves and/or terrigenous older river portion, Which sediments were transported mostly by rolling or bottom suspension. The depositional environments of the Jeju beaches can be divided into two types: beaches distributed in the North and the Northeastern parts of the Island are dominated by marine enviroment, whereas beaches in the Southwestern portion are characterized by terrigenous agencies.