• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.8-9
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• 2011

On 4 September 2010 an earthquake of magnitude 7.1 on the Richter scale occurred on the Canterbury Plains in the South Island of New Zealand. The Canterbury Plains are an area of extensive groundwater and spring fed surface water systems. Since the September earthquake there have been several thousand aftershocks (Fig. 1), the largest being a 6.3 magnitude quake which occurred close to the centre of Christchurch on 22February 2011. This second quake caused extensive damage to the city of Christchurch including the deaths of 189 people. Both of these quakes had marked hydrological impacts. Water is a vital natural resource for Canterburywith groundwater being extracted for potable supply and both ground and surface water being used extensively for agricultural and horticultural irrigation.The groundwater is of very high quality so that the city of Christchurch (population approx. 400,000) supplies untreated artesian water to the majority of households and businesses. Both earthquakes caused immediate hydrological effects, the most dramatic of which was the liquefaction of sediments and the release of shallow groundwater containing a fine grey silt-sand material. The liquefaction that occurred fitted within the empirical relationship between distance from epicentre and magnitude of quake described by Montgomery et al. (2003). . It appears that liquefaction resulted in development of discontinuities in confining layers. In some cases these appear to have been maintained by artesian pressure and continuing flow, and the springs are continuing to flow even now. In spring-fed streams there was an increase in flow that lasted for several days and in some cases flows remained high for several months afterwards although this could be linked to a very wet winter prior to the September earthquake. Analysis of the slope of baseflow recession for a spring-fed stream before and after the September earthquake shows no change, indicating no substantial change in the aquifer structure that feeds this stream.A complicating factor for consideration of river flows was that in some places the liquefaction of shallow sediments led to lateral spreading of river banks. The lateral spread lessened the channel cross section so water levels rose although the flow might not have risen accordingly. Groundwater level peaks moved both up and down, depending on the location of wells. Groundwater level changes for the two earthquakes were strongly related to the proximity to the epicentre. The February 2011 earthquake resulted in significantly larger groundwater level changes in eastern Christchurch than occurred in September 2010. In a well of similar distance from both epicentres the two events resulted in a similar sized increase in water level but the slightly slower rate of increase and the markedly slower recession recorded in the February event suggests that the well may have been partially blocked by sediment flowing into the well at depth. The effects of the February earthquake were more localised and in the area to the west of Christchurch it was the earlier earthquake that had greater impact. Many of the recorded responses have been compromised, or complicated, by damage or clogging and further inspections will need to be carried out to allow a more definitive interpretation. Nevertheless, it is reasonable to provisionally conclude that there is no clear evidence of significant change in aquifer pressures or properties. The different response of groundwater to earthquakes across the Canterbury Plains is the subject of a new research project about to start that uses the information to improve groundwater characterisation for the region. Montgomery D.R., Greenberg H.M., Smith D.T. (2003) Stream flow response to the Nisqually earthquake. Earth & Planetary Science Letters 209 19-28.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.195-206
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• 2021

In 2020, South Korea initiated research and development of a longitudinal connectivity evaluation between upstream and downstream based on stream ecosystem health. This study analyzed the migration of upstream and downstream migratory fish species, fish distribution characteristics, trophic guilds, tolerance guilds, and species composition changes from 2015 to 2020 at Songrim weir in Yeongok stream, where the cross-structure of an ice harbor-type fishway for fish movement was recently improved. A total of 5,136 fish, including 36 species, were collected and three major migratory fishes were identified, namely, Tribolodon hakonensis, Plecoglossus altivelis altivelis, and Oncorhynchus keta. According to the comparative analysis before (Pre-I) and after (Post-I) improvement of the fishway, the relative abundance of primary freshwater fish increased in the upstream section, while the number of migratory fishes decreased. The fish species that used the fishway in the Songrim weir were Tribolodon hakonensis (58.4%) and Plecoglossus altivelis altivelis(11.8%). According to the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test migratory fish showed a statistically significant difference (p<0.05) in the upstream and downstream, showing a biological improvement effect of the crossstructure. On the other hand, the annual change of migratory fish based on the MannKendall trend test did not significantly increase or decrease (p>0.05). Therefore, in the fish passage improvement project, it is necessary not only for physical, hydrological, and structural tests, but also for pre- and post-biological tests on the use and improvement effect of fishway.

• 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.