• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.15 no.6 s.59
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• pp.411-424
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• 2005

Weathering is defined as a process by which surface rock, once formed in the deep ground, is broken down and altered to keep the equilibrium with the ambient environment. In this study granitic rock samples of different weathering grades were collected in the field and the microscopic observation, X-ray diffraction analysis, electron microscopic observation, chemical analysis, and rock property tests were carried out. Formation of secondary minerals, especially clay minerals, by weathering was identified and the mechanism for the change of engineering properties such as rock strength degradation was analyzed. Tunnel model test, Failure behaviour, Shallow tunnel, Unsupproted tunnel length.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.83-90
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• 2003

In order to offer some fundamental data for recycling the excavated rocks, the component and mechanical characteristics was investigated for the excavated rocks, by means of X-ray diffraction analysis, strength test, slacking test and abrasion test were performed. It appeared that the unconfined compressive strength and the elastic wave velocity were the highest in the sound rock. The dissipation rate by stability tests was found to be high in the case of the slacking index of 98% because of more bedding and more clay minerals. The apparent specific gravity of some crushed aggregate was decreased because they included easily weathered minerals while both the absorption and the abrasion were increased. The results in this study were expected to be useful for recycling the excavated rocks as a concrete aggregate.

• Mineral and Industry
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• v.29
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• pp.1-17
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• 2016

점토광물은 자연 산출되는 광물로써 양이 풍부하고 가격이 저렴하여 여러 가지 산업자원으로써 오래전부터 다양하게 활용되어 왔다. 전통적인 주요 활용분야로는 제지 및 코팅 산업의 충진제, 내화재, 세라믹, 유리섬유, 시멘트 등에 90% 이상이 사용되어왔다. 최근에야 고무, 플라스틱 및 페인트의 물성 강화용 충진제로, 넓은 표면적을 활용한 촉매제로 일부 사용되고 있지만 대부분 판상용 점토광물을 대상으로 하고 있다. 고령토가 국내 생산 주요 품목에 들어가지만 그 비중은 2014년 기준 1.9%로 낮으며, 그나마 자급율도 77% 수준이라 수입에 의존하고 있다. 생산되는 고령토의 양이 매년 감소하고 있는 추세이며, 2014년 기준 고품질인 Wa와 Wb의 생산량이 각각 600 톤과 227 톤으로 미미한 수준이며 P급이 4.1만 톤 수준이라 부가가치가 매우 낮은 상품 중의 하나로 보인다. 다행히 우리나라에서 생산되는 고령토의 많은 부분이 할로이사이트 계열 고령토이고, 할로이사이트의 독특한 나노튜브 형태는 신소재 개발과 더불어 부가가치가 높은 새로운 활용분야를 개척하기 아주 적절한 광물이어서 그 특성과 산업적 활용 특성을 중심으로 최신 연구동향과 활용분야를 소개하고자 한다.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.15 no.2 s.42
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• pp.105-121
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• 2005

Most of the landslides triggered by intensive rainfall on natural slope occur serious damages of human beings and properties. There have been many landslides since 1991 in Gyeonggi province. The influential factors are rainfall, topography, geology and soil properties. There were 660 landslides occurred by intensive rainfall as much as 250mm at Yongin and Anseong area from Tuly 19th to luly 21st,1991 This study surveyed location, topography, geology, geometry of the landslide and rainfall at the area and analyzed occurrence characteristics of the landslides. Most of the landslides occurred on the soil layer above the bed rock. They showed changes of landslide types from translational slides at the head part to flow at the central part. The landslides have relatively small magnitude of which length is shorter than 50m. In order to identify characteristics of landslides dependent on soil conditions, geotechnical properties of soil were evaluated by laboratory tests using soil samples which were collected on slided area and not-slided area. Soil properties of the slided area show high percentage of coarse material such as gravel and sand. However, soil of the not-slided area is mainly composed of fine material such as silt and clay. Permeability coefficients of the slided area are higher than those of the not-slided area.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.14 no.4 s.41
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• pp.487-498
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• 2004

There is an increasing trend of construction works in mountainous areas by the urban development in Busan that is mainly composed of mountains. The study area, Hwangryeong Mt., is one of developing sites in the urban area, too. Landslides and cut-slope failures that occur large damages of human beings and the properties are influenced by soil characteristics as well as rock properties. This study analyzed geotechnical characteristics of soil dependent on geology at Hwangryeong Mt. where a large slope failure had been occurred in 1999. Geology of the study area is composed of the Cretaceous sedimentary rocks and volcanic rocks. Soil layer of the slopes can be grouped into sand mixed with clay and silt. The cohesion is plotted between $0.001\;and\;0.066kg/cm^2$. The friction angles are distributed in the ranges between $32^{\circ}\;and\;39^{\circ}$, meaning soil bearing a high friction angle. The permeability coefficients are plotted between $2.34\times10^{-4}cm/sec\;and\;2.58\times10^{-2}cm/sec$, indicating fine sand and loose silt with a medium grade of permeability. The sedimentary rocks area shows relatively higher permeability coefficients than those volcanic rocks area.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.129-138
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• 2013

River bank filtration has been considered as a promising alternative water management scheme, in which groundwater is extracted from an aquifer near a river after infiltration of the river water into the aquifer, thereby improving and maintaining the quality of water recovered. Iron (Fe) associated with sediment in contact with groundwater and infiltrating surface water is an important factor in determining the quality of water recovered from the pumping wells in river bank filtration. This study reports the results of Fe speciation in the aquifer sediment samples collected from different depths at the river bank filtration site in Changwon, studied using four different chemical extraction methods, namely, ferrozine, oxalate, HCl, and DCB methods. Overall, the results show that Fe(II) as well as the total Fe content decreases with depth down to ~20 m and then increases further below. This trend is consistent with the redox characteristics suggested by visual observation. The silt/clay size fraction (${\phi}$ < 62.5 ${\mu}M$) has up to 2~10 times more Fe compared with the sand size fraction (62.5 ${\mu}M$ < ${\phi}$ < 2 mm), depending on the extraction method. Of the four extraction methods, DCB solution extracted the most Fe from the sediment samples. The amounts of Fe extracted by the different extraction methods can be a good indicator of the redox conditions along the depth of the aquifer.

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.463-475
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• 2020

Presence of microplastics in soil and groundwater has recently been reported and environmental concerns are raised as to the plastic pollution. In the subsurface environment, clay minerals and metal oxide minerals are commonly found as finely dispersed states. Because the minerals have high sorption capacities for diverse pollutants, interactions with mineral surface play an important role in the transport of microplastics in groundwater. Accordingly, environmental mineralogy investigating the interactions between microplastics and mineral surfaces is the essential research area to understand the fate and transport of microplastics in the subsurface environment. The microplastic-mineral surface research requires molecular- to nano-scale analyses to be able to probe the relatively weak interactions between them. The current report introduces a nano-scale analysis tool called quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) that can measure the sorbed/desorbed mass of nanoplastics on mineral surfaces at the level of a few nanograms (~10-9 g). This report briefly reviews the main principles in the QCM measurement and discusses applications of QCM to the environmental mineralogy research.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.121-135
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• 2012

Soil dispersion and heavy metal leaching with two heavy metal-contaminated soils were studied to derive the optimal dispersion condition in the course of developing the remedial technology using magnetic separation. The dispersion solutions of pyrophosphate, hexametaphosphate, orthophosphate and sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) at 1 - 200 mM and the pH of solutions was adjusted to be 9 - 12 with NaOH. The clay content of suspension as an indicator of dispersion rate and the heavy metal concentration of the solution were tested at the different pHs and concentrations of the dispersion solution during the experiment. The dispersion rate increased with increasing the pH and dispersion agent concentration of the solution. The dispersion efficiency of the agents showed as follows: pyrophosphate > hexametaphosphate > SDS > orthophosphate. Arsenic leaching was sharply increased at 50 mM of phosphates and 100 mM of SDS. The adsorption of $OH^-$, phosphates and dodecysulfate on the surface of Fe- and Mn-oxides and soil organic matter and the broken edge of clay mineral might decrease the surface charge and might increase the repulsion force among soil particles. The competition between arsenic and $OH^-$, phosphates and dodecylsulfate for the adsorption site of soil particles might induce the arsenic leaching. The dispersion and heavy metal leaching data indicate that pH 11 and 10 mM pyrophosphate is the optimum dispersion solution for maximizing dispersion and minimizing heavy metal leaching.

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.15-29
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• 2021

In the Arctic Ocean, the distribution of sea ice and ice sheets changes as climate changes. Because the distribution of ice cover influences the mineral composition of marine sediments, studying marine sediments transported by sea ice or iceberg is very important to understand the global climate change. This study analyzes marine sediment samples collected from the Arctic Ocean and infers the provenance of the sediments to reconstruct the paleoenvironment changes of the western Arctic. The analyzed samples include four gravity cores collected from the Araon mound in the Chukchi Plateau and one gravity core collected from the slope between the Araon mounds. The core sediments were brown, gray, and greenish gray, each of which corresponds to the characteristic color of sediments deposited during the interglacial/glacial cycle in the western Arctic Ocean. We divide the core sediments into three units based on the analysis of bulk mineral composition, clay mineral composition, and Ice Rafted Debris (IRD) as well as comparison with previous study results. Unit 3 sediments, deposited during the last glacial maximum, were transported by sea ice and currents after the sediments of the Kolyma and Indigirka Rivers were deposited on the continental shelf of the East Siberian Sea. Unit 2 sediments, deposited during the deglacial period, were from the Kolyma and Indigirka Rivers flowing into the East Siberian Sea as well as from the Mackenzie River and the Canadian Archipelago flowing into the Beaufort Sea. Unit 2 sediments also contained an extensive amount of IRD, which originated from the melted Laurentide Ice Sheet. During the interglacial stage, fine-grained sediments of Unit 1 were transported by sea ice and currents from Northern Canada and the East Siberian Sea, but coarse-grained sediments were derived by sea ice from the Canadian Archipelago.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.487-502
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• 2012

This paper is focused on mineral compositions, microstructures and distributional characters of remained grains in the fault rocks collected from a fault developed in Yongdang-ri, Yangbuk-myeon, Gyeongju City, Korea, using X-ray diffraction (XRD), optical microscope, laser grain size analysis and fractal dimension analysis methods. The exposed fault core zone is about 1.5 meter thick. On the average, the breccia zone is 1.2 meter and the gouge zone is 20cm thick, respectively. XRD results show that the breccia zone consists predominantly of rock-forming minerals including quartz and feldspar, but the gouge zone consists of abundant clay minerals such as chlorite, illite and kaolinite. Mineral vein, pyrite and altered minerals commonly observed in the fault rock support evidence of fault activity associated with hydrothermal alteration. Fractal dimensions based on box counting, image analysis and laser particle analysis suggest that mineral grains in the fault rock underwent fracturing process as well as abrasion that gave rise to diminution of grains during the fault activity. Fractal dimensions(D-values) calculated by three methods gradually increase from the breccia zone to the gouge zone which has commonly high D-values. There are no noticeable changes in D-values in the gouge zone with trend being constant. It means that the bulk-crushing process of mineral grains in the breccia zone was predominant, whereas abrasion of mineral grains in the gouge zone took place by continuous fault activity. It means that the bulk-crushing process of mineral grains in the breccia zone was predominant, whereas abrasion of mineral grains in the gouge zone took place by continuous fault activity. Mineral compositions in the fault zone and peculiar trends in grain distribution indicate that multiple fault activity had a considerable influence on the evolution of fault zones, together with hydrothermal alteration. Meanwhile, fractal dimension values(D) in the fault rock should be used with caution because there is possibility that different values are unexpectedly obtained depending on the measurement methods available even in the same sample.