• Journal of the Geological Society of Korea
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.477-488
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• 2018

Fluid muds commonly occur in estuarine environments, but their ancient examples have rarely been studied in terms of depositional characteristics and processes. Cores of estuarine channel deposits of the Early Cretaceous McMurray Formation, Alberta, Canada show various mudstone layers that possess depositional characteristics of high clay-concentration flows. These mudstone layers are examined in detail through microscopic observation of thin sections and classified into three microfacies (<1 to 25 mm thick) on the basis of sedimentary texture and structures. Structureless mudstone (Microfacies 1) consists mainly of clay particles and contains randomly dispersed coarser grains (coarse silt to fine sand). This microfacies is interpreted as being deposited by cohesive mud flows, i.e., fluid muds, which possessed sufficient strength to support suspended coarser grains (quasi-laminar plug flow). Silt-streaked mudstone (Microfacies 2) mainly comprises mudstone with dispersed coarse grains and includes very thin, discontinuous silt streaks of coarse-silt to very-fine-sand grains. The texture similar to Microfacies 1 indicates that Microfacies 2 was also deposited by cohesive fluid muds. The silt streaks are, however, suggestive of the presence of intermittent weak turbulence under the plug (upper transitional plug flow). Heterolithic laminated mudstone (Microfacies 3) is characterized by alternation of relatively thick silt laminae and much thinner clay laminae. It is either parallel-laminated or low-angle cross-laminated, occasionally showing low-amplitude ripple forms. The heterolithic laminae are interpreted as the results of shear sorting in the basal turbulent zone under a cohesive plug. They may represent low-amplitude bed-waves formed under lower transitional plug flows. These three microfacies reflect a range of flow phases of fluid muds, which change with flow velocities and suspended mud concentrations. The results of this study provide important knowledge to recognize fluid-mud deposits in ancient sequences and to better understand depositional processes of mudstones.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.145-157
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• 2012

In this study, we simulated a carbon flux model, so called Vegetation Integrated Simulator for Trace gases (VISIT) using Spatio-temporal Environmental Information, to estimate carbon budgets of vegetation ecosystem in South Korea. As results of the simulation, the model estimated that the annual-average gross primary production (GPP), net primary production (NPP) for 10 years were $91.89Tg\;C\;year^{-1}$, and $40.16Tg\;C\;year^{-1}$, respectively. The model also estimated the vegetation ecosystems in South Korea as a net carbon sink, with a value of $3.51Tg\;C\;year^{-1}$ during the simulation period. Comparing with the anthropogenic emission of South Korea, vegetation ecosystems offsets 3.3% of human emissions as a net carbon sink in 2007. To estimate the carbon budget more accurately, it is important to prepare reliable input datasets. And also, model parameters should be calibrated through comparing with various independent method. The result of this study, however, would be helpful for devising ecosystem management strategies that may help to mitigate global climate change.