• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.30-39
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• 2001

To consider the distribution of the surface sediments and sedimentary processes in tidal flat after the construction of sea-walls in the semiclosed Muan Bay, the southwest coast of Korea, studies on the sediments and sedimentation rates along two transect lines from February 1999 to March 2000 were carried out. The surface sediments in the bay are classified into 5 facies on the basis of textural parameters. The gravelly sediments including the cobbles and pebbles deposited in the bay-mouth are relic sediments which are formed in nearshore and fluvial environments at the low stand of sea level. In addition, it is considered that the muddy sediments widely distributed on the tidal flat might be originated from suspended matter transported from several rivers and/or offshore. Although the sedimentation rates on the tidal flat vary with season, their estimation rates are -8.9 mm/yr on Line-GR and -48.9 mm/yr on Line-YH, respectively. The erosion-dominated processes in the tidal flat would be caused by strengthened ebb tides due to the decrease of tidal choking at Mokpogu and the migration of tidal currents at the bay-mouth. The hydrodynamical changes mentioned above are interpreted to be occurred after/before the construction of sea-dike/sea-walls in coastal zone of Mokpo.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.452-455
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• 2009

The Nakdong Delta can be identified by two different geomorphic units. The first one is the upper delta. This is mostly composed of inter-distributary islands that are largely influenced by fluvial processes and attributed to the development of these islands along the river. The other one is the lower delta which is mostly composed of beach ridges. Barrier islands are largely effected by wave processes promoted by the development almost at a right angle to the river. Influenced by the longshore current which flows to the same direction, barrier islands located in the Nakdong river estuary are developing from east to west direction. As a result, the eastern end of the barrier islands are growing toward the north-west direction effected by tidal current which moves toward the same direction. Barrier islands include the Sinho Island, the Jinwoo Island, the Daema deung, the Janga Island, the Baghap deung, the Sae deung, and the Chulsae deung(Doyeo deung). They have orderly emerged from the sea since 1861. Since 2008, a new Deung, a sand dune growing under sea, has been developing rapidly from Chulsae deung to the Dadaepo beach. It made the sailing of small fisher boats impossible. Tidal currents transported a lot of sand and silt around the barrier islands. The landscape of Nakdong river estuary where many barrier islands are distributed will change rapidly affecting land environment.

• The Korean Journal of Petroleum Geology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2008

As conventional oil and gas reservoirs become depleted, interests for oil sands has rapidly increased in the last decade. Oil sands are mixture of bitumen, water, and host sediments of sand and clay. Most oil sand is unconsolidated sand that is held together by bitumen. Bitumen has hydrocarbon in situ viscosity of >10,000 centipoises (cP) at reservoir condition and has API gravity between $8-14^{\circ}$. The largest oil sand deposits are in Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada. The reverves are approximated at 1.7 trillion barrels of initial oil-in-place and 173 billion barrels of remaining established reserves. Alberta has a number of oil sands deposits which are grouped into three oil sand development areas - the Athabasca, Cold Lake, and Peace River, with the largest current bitumen production from Athabasca. Principal oil sands deposits consist of the McMurray Fm and Wabiskaw Mbr in Athabasca area, the Gething and Bluesky formations in Peace River area, and relatively thin multi-reservoir deposits of McMurray, Clearwater, and Grand Rapid formations in Cold Lake area. The reservoir sediments were deposited in the foreland basin (Western Canada Sedimentary Basin) formed by collision between the Pacific and North America plates and the subsequent thrusting movements in the Mesozoic. The deposits are underlain by basement rocks of Paleozoic carbonates with highly variable topography. The oil sands deposits were formed during the Early Cretaceous transgression which occurred along the Cretaceous Interior Seaway in North America. The oil-sands-hosting McMurray and Wabiskaw deposits in the Athabasca area consist of the lower fluvial and the upper estuarine-offshore sediments, reflecting the broad and overall transgression. The deposits are characterized by facies heterogeneity of channelized reservoir sands and non-reservoir muds. Main reservoir bodies of the McMurray Formation are fluvial and estuarine channel-point bar complexes which are interbedded with fine-grained deposits formed in floodplain, tidal flat, and estuarine bay. The Wabiskaw deposits (basal member of the Clearwater Formation) commonly comprise sheet-shaped offshore muds and sands, but occasionally show deep-incision into the McMurray deposits, forming channelized reservoir sand bodies of oil sands. In Canada, bitumen of oil sands deposits is produced by surface mining or in-situ thermal recovery processes. Bitumen sands recovered by surface mining are changed into synthetic crude oil through extraction and upgrading processes. On the other hand, bitumen produced by in-situ thermal recovery is transported to refinery only through bitumen blending process. The in-situ thermal recovery technology is represented by Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage and Cyclic Steam Stimulation. These technologies are based on steam injection into bitumen sand reservoirs for increase in reservoir in-situ temperature and in bitumen mobility. In oil sands reservoirs, efficiency for steam propagation is controlled mainly by reservoir geology. Accordingly, understanding of geological factors and characteristics of oil sands reservoir deposits is prerequisite for well-designed development planning and effective bitumen production. As significant geological factors and characteristics in oil sands reservoir deposits, this study suggests (1) pay of bitumen sands and connectivity, (2) bitumen content and saturation, (3) geologic structure, (4) distribution of mud baffles and plugs, (5) thickness and lateral continuity of mud interbeds, (6) distribution of water-saturated sands, (7) distribution of gas-saturated sands, (8) direction of lateral accretion of point bar, (9) distribution of diagenetic layers and nodules, and (10) texture and fabric change within reservoir sand body.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.303-312
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• 2011

Analysis of high-resolution seismic profiles from the southeastern continental shelf of Korea reveals that the Holocene transgressive deposits consist of five sedimentary units characterized by retrograding or backstepping depositional arrangements. Unit I, forming a linear sediment body along the shelf margin, is an ancient beach/shoreface deposit formed during the early stage of transgression. During the transgression, the paleo-channels were backfilled with fluvial or coastal-plain sediments, forming Unit II as an incised-channel fill deposit. The near-surface sediment was reworked and eroded by shoreface erosion, forming a thin lag of sands (Unit III) on the midshelf. During the middle stage of the transgression, the shoreline may have stabilized at around 70 - 80 m below the present sea level for some period of time to allow the formation of sand ridge systems (Unit IV). Unit V in the inner shelf was deposited in an estuarine environment during the middle to late stage of transgression. Such transgressive stratigraphic architecture is controlled by a function of lateral changes in the balance among rates of relative sea-level rise, sediment input and marine processes at any given time.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.673-692
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• 2011

Advances in computer technology have enabled us to develop and use numerical landscape evolution models (NLEMs) for exploring the dynamics of geomorphic system from a variety of viewpoints which previously could have not been taken. However, as of yet there have been no trials using or developing NLEMs in Korea. The purpose of this research is to develop a 2 dimensional NLEM on a geological time scale and evaluate its usefulness. The newly developed NLEM (ND-NLEM) treats bedrock weathering as one of the major geomorphic processes and attempts to simulate the thickness of soil. As such it is possible to model the weathering-limited as well as the transport-limited environment on hillslopes. Moreover the ND-NLEM includes not only slow and continuous mass transport like soil creep, but also rapid and discrete mass transport like landslides. Bedrock incision is simulated in the ND-NLEM where fluvial transport capacity is large enough to move all channel bed loads, such that ND-NLEM can model the detachment-limited environment. Furthermore the ND-NLEM adopts the D-infinity algorithm when routing flows in the model domain, so it reduces distortion due to the use of the steepest descent slope flow direction algorithm. In the experiments to evaluate the usefulness of the ND-NLEM, characteristics of the channel network observed from the model results were similar to those of the case study area for comparison, and the hypsometry curve log during the experiment showed rational evidence of landscape evolution. Therefore, the ND-NLEM is shown to be useful for simulating landscape evolution on a geological time scale.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.42 no.2 s.119
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• pp.165-176
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• 2007

Absolute age of the deposition of 1.3 km-thick Bunthang sequence within the Skardu intermontane basin of the Central Karakoram was determined using radioactive decay of cosmogonic $^{10}Be$ and $^{26}Al$ burial dating. The Bunthang sequence deposited around 2.65 Ma, which is the oldest glaciation in the region. The timing of deposition of the Bunthang sequence is consistent with the previous suggestion that the basin filling took place between Brunhess and Matuyama chrons. Four major sedimentary facies interfinger within the Bunthang sequence: glacial diamict, lacustrine, fluvial and lacustrine facies upward. This sedimentary distinctiveness and the lack of evidence on the faults for alternative pull-apart basin model around the Bunthang sequence, suggest that the depressional basin was formed by deep subglacial erosion during the exrtensive Bunthang Glacial Stage and subsequently the sediments underlain by basal diamict, was quickly deposited by preglacial and paraglacial processes. Temporary ponding of the Indus River due to tectonic uplift in the downstream or blockage by mass movements might make the basin filing more possible. The hypothesis that the single ice sheet developed on the Tibetan Plateau during the global last glacial cycle should be refuted by the existence of the older extensive Bunthang glacier Furthermore, the extensive glaciation during the early Quaternary (and thus progressive decrease in extent with time) suggests that there may have been significant uplift of the Pamir to the west and Himalaya to the south, which would have reduced the penetration of westerlies and Indian summer monsoon and hence moisture supply to the region.

• Journal of the Korean Geophysical Society
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.191-200
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• 1999

Analysis of chirp high-resolution seismic profiles from the central Yellow Sea reveals that depositional environments in this area can be divided into three distinctive zones from west to east: (1) subaqueous delta system near the Shandong Peninsula, (2) erosional zone in the central Yellow Sea, and (3) tidal sand ridges and sand waves near the Korean Peninsula. The Shandong subaqueous delta, extending southward from the Shandong Peninsula, changes gradually into prodelta southeastward. The sediments originated from the Yellow River are transported southward along the Chinese coastal area. The erosional zone in the central Yellow Sea contains numerous paleochannels and shows linear erosional features trending northwest-southeast. The erosional zone would be dominated by non-depositional or erosional processes during the Holocene. Tidal sand ridges and sand waves are well developed along the western coast of Korea. The residual sands, which were originally fluvial sediments at the sea-level lowstand, are interpreted as the result of winnowing process during the sea-level rise. Modern sand ridges generally migrates in a northeast-southwestern direction, which coincide with dominant tidal current direction.

• 한국해양학회지
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.105-118
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• 1987

A series of anchor stations were occupied along the Keum EAstuary during six different periods of tidal and fluvial regimes. The results clearly show that the formation and evolution of the turbidity maximum play an important role in the sedimentary processes in this environment. The turbidity maximum in the Keum Estuary is primarily related to the tidal range at the mouth and is caused by the resuspension of bottom sediments. In this estuary, the turbidity maximum is not a permanent feature and shows semidiurnal, fortnightly and seasonal variations. Repetition of deposition and resuspension of fine sediments occur in response to the variation in current velocity associated with semidiurnal tidal cycles. The core of turbidity maximum shifts landward or seaward accordion to the flood-ebb succession. The turbidity maximum also shows a fortnightly variation in response to the spring-neap cycles. Thus, the turbidity maximum degenerates during neap-tide and regenerates during spring-tide. The freshwater discharge is also an important factor in the formation and destruction of the turbidity maximum. The increase in freshwater discharge in rainy season can create an ebb-dominant current pattern which enhances the seaward transport of suspended sediments, resulting in the shortening of residence time of suspended materials in the estuary. Thus, under this high discharge condition, the turbidity maximum exists only during spring-tide and starts to disappear as the tidal amplitude decreases.

• Journal of The Geomorphological Association of Korea
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.11-24
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• 2008

Stratified slope was formed on the SSE-facing slope in the southwest region of Haenam, South Korea. Field and laboratory investigations into the geomorphology and sedimentology of stratified slope deposit that is inactive. Outcrops of this deposit show an alteration of coarse debris-supported matrix and tiny debris-supported matrix layers. Sedimentological analysis(particle-size analysis) indicates that this deposit is not fluvial process or only gravitation like rock-fall. Many clasts and fine materials on the slope is supposed to be product by congelifraction under Pleistocene periglacial climatic environment. Also The processes responsible for the genesis of this deposit probably are to move downward by gelifluction and to remove fine materials by slope wash in thawing cycle and in situ debris congelifraction on gelifluction slope. Now It is impossible to account for the time range of genesis(diurnal, seasonal). In conclusion, this stratified slope formed in cold and humid periglacial environmental in pleistocene, therefore, this slope is a periglacial relic landform, indicates that in south korea there was a cold and humid paleo-climate such as periglacial environmen.

• Journal of The Geomorphological Association of Korea
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.1-15
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• 2011

This work is to review the granite landforms studies by Korean geographers. It is verified that geomorphlogical characteristics of granite present landscapes characterized by 1) in case of mountains, are difficultly or irregularly weathered, so as to develop rocky forms such as domes, cliffs, and tors ; 2) in case of stream valley that is inter-massif lowland, low relief hills and flood plains with alluvium. All these facts owe to the difference of weathering mode granite properties. The granite hills and alluvial plains of southwestern coastal parts in Korean peninsula is low undulatory and large owing not only to the existence of highly weathered granitic regolith, but also to frequent flooding. Cultivated brownish field, orchard, meadow and forest are located at granite hills. On the other hand paddy rice field at granite alluvial plains. Korean peninsula have endured erodible geomorphlogical processes since Miocene when warping it up. Therefore many intermontane basins are located on the weathered granite areas which are surrounded by mountains composed of much less Precambrian gneiss complex. In fact, intermontane basin is mainly linear fault-line valley. The landforms of the intermontane basins are characterized by gentle piedmont slopes, alluvial fans, fluvial terraces and alluvial plains.