• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2008

We present a method for interpreting seismic records with arrivals and waveforms having characteristics which could be generated by extremely inhomogeneous velocity structures, such as non-typical oceanic crust, decollement at subduction zones, and seamounts in oceanic regions, by comparing them with synthetic waveforms. Recent extensive refraction and wide-angle reflection surveys in oceanic regions have provided us with a huge number of high-resolution and high-quality seismic records containing characteristic arrivals and waveforms, besides first arrivals and major reflected phases such as PmP. Some characteristic waveforms, with significant later reflected phases or anomalous amplitude decay with offset distance, are difficult to interpret using only a conventional interpretation method such as the traveltime tomographic inversion method. We find the best process for investigating such characteristic phases is to use an interactive interpretation method to compare observed data with synthetic waveforms, and calculate raypaths and traveltimes. This approach enables us to construct a reasonable structural model that includes all of the major characteristics of the observed waveforms. We present results here with some actual observed examples that might be of great help in the interpretation of such problematic phases. Our approach to the analysis of waveform characteristics is endorsed as an innovative method for constructing high-resolution and high-quality crustal structure models, not only in oceanic regions, but also in the continental regions.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.146-162
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• 2017

Multibeam and seismic data in the northwestern part of the Ulleung Basin were analyzed to study stratigraphy and evolutionary history of submarine canyon. A detailed analysis reveals that the sedimentary sequences in this area consist of four stratigraphic units separated by erosional unconformities. On the continental slope, these units are dominated by well-stratified facies with some slope failures, whereas these units show well-stratified and chaotic facies toward the basin floor. Generally, the sediment thickness is relatively thin on the slope, whereas thick sediment accumulation occurs on the base of slope and basin floor. Based on seismic characteristics and distribution, the deposition of each units are well correlated with the evolutionary history of the submarine canyon. Unit 1 directly overlying the acoustic basement has thin sediment layer on the slope, whereas its thickness gradually increase toward the basin floor. Compared to other units, Unit 2 is relatively thick accumulations on the slope and contains some slope failures related to faults systems. The mass transport sediments due to slope failures, mainly deposited on the base of slope as a submarine fan. The width and depth of submarine canyon increase due to dominant of the erosional process rather than the sediment deposition. Unit 3 is thin accumulation on the slope around the submarine canyon. Toward the basin floor, its thickness gradually increases. Unit 4 is characterized by thin layers including slides and slumps on the slope, whereas it formed thick accumulations at the base of slope as a submarine fan. The increase in the width and depth of submarine canyon results from the dominant of the erosional process and slope failures around the submarine canyon. Consequently, the formation of sedimentary units combined with the development of submarine canyon in this area is largely controlled by the amounts of sediment supply originated from slope failures, regional tectonic effects and sea-level fluctuations.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.101-109
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• 1998

Using airborne magnetic data, magnetic characteristics were studied at the Samryangjin caldera area developed in the volcanics of the Yuchon sub-basin, the south eastern part of the Gyeongsang basin. Residual magnetics, reduction to the pole, horizontal derivative, and vertical derivative maps are prepared. Using these maps, the magnetic lithofaces are zoned and the geological structures such as caldera and faults were qualitatively interpreted. In addition, the two quantitative interpretations were performed. Firstly, the forward modelling were done to the 14.5 line km crossing the caldera area to the northeast-southwest direction. Applying the 3-D Euler deconvolution method to the whole study area, the depth extent and the characteristics of the magnetic anomalous bodies were studied. According to the results, the magnetic lithofaces of the area are zoned by 4 units. In general, these are well matched with the geological distributions. But the biotite granites intruded in the northern boundary of the Samryangjin caldera show the high magnetic intensity, while the biotite granites of the other areas show the low magnetic intensity and the different magnetic lithofaces. Thus, we interpreted that the biotite granites are closely related with the volcanic activity of the Samryngjin caldera, and are intruded in the fracture zones developed along the caldera rim. The Samryangjin caldera and fault structures of the area can be easily recognized by the distinct magnetic structures from the various magnetic anomaly maps. Also the topographic characteristics well reflect these structures. The results of the forward modelling show that the magnetic basement depth of the Gyeongsang sedimentary basin is on the average about 6 km and in maximum 10 km. And the depth becomes shallower toward the caldera boundary due to the shallow intrusion of the volcanics. The results of the 3-D Euler method also show the caldera and fault structures. And the relatively shallow magnetic anomalous bodies which are related with the volcanics are generally developed to the east-west and northeast directions, while the deep magnetic anomalous bodies to the northwest direction.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2000

The 1 $km^2$ area studied is located in Sukchun-ri, Hwasung-koon, the southern part of Kyeonggi-do. Even though this site has been known as a contaminated area caused by seawater intrusions, geophysical and geochemical surveys have never been carried out at the site to determine the extent of the seawater contamination and to investigate whether the seawater intrusion is in progress. The purpose of this study is to determine the extent of seawater contamination and a preferred channel of the seawater intrusion using geophysical methods such as DC resistivity surveys with Schlumberger array and a dipole-dipole array. In order to determine whether the seawater intrusion is in progress in the area, DC resistivity monitoring with Schlumberger array was performed. According to the resistivity map obtained from the inversion of the resistivity data measured with Schlumberger array, the study area is divided into two districts as relatively lowly resistive (less than 30 ohm-m) and highly resistive (more than 30 ohm-m) areas. The distribution of the lowly resistive area is consistent with the distribution of the layer composed of clay minerals, and the resistivity of this layer decreases slowly as approaching to the old seashore. Hydrogeological analysis shows that the clay layer within a distance of about 200 m from the seashore has been already contaminated by sea-water and its electric conductivity is 8 times higher than that of the sand layer covered by the clay layer. According to the results of the 2-dimensional DC resistivity surveys with a dipole-dipole array, there are two preferred channels of the seawater intrusion in the site, and both the channels are in the NW-SE direction from the old seashore. The lowly resistive zone in the southern channel extends to a depth of 80 m. The DC resistivity monitoring with Schlumberger array was carried out along the preferred channel which has the low resistivity Bone (fracture zone) that extended to a depth of 80 m. The time series of apparent resistivity, measured at a distance of 260 m from the old coast line, fluctuates with a period of 12 hours. From these observations, it can be concluded that the seawater intrusion caused by tidal action is still in progress along the fractured zone interpreted by the DC resistivity surveys with a dipole-dipole array.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.191-202
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• 2007

To identify the detailed attenuation structure in the southern Korean Peninsula, a numerical test was conducted for the Q tomography inversion to be applied to the accumulated dataset until 2005. In particular, the stochastic pointsource ground-motion model (STGM model; Boore, 2003) was adopted for the 2D Q tomography inversion for direct application to simulating the strong ground-motion. Simultaneous inversion of the STGM model parameters with a regional single Q model was performed to evaluate the source and site effects which were necessary to generate an artificial dataset for the numerical test. The artificial dataset consists of simulated Fourier spectra that resemble the real data in the magnitude-distance-frequency-error distribution except replacement of the regional single Q model with a checkerboard type of high and low values of laterally varying Q models. The total number of Q blocks used for the checkerboard test was 75 (grid size of $35{\times}44km^2$ for Q blocks); Q functional form of $Q_0f^{\eta}$ ($Q_0$=100 or 500, 0.0 < ${\eta}$ < 1.0) was assigned to each Q block for the checkerboard test. The checkerboard test has been implemented in three steps. At the first step, the initial values of Q-values for 75 blocks were estimated. At the second step, the site amplification function was estimated by using the initial guess of A(f) which is the mean site amplification functions (Yun and Suh, 2007) for the site class. The last step is to invert the tomographic Q-values of 75 blocks based on the results of the first and second steps. As a result of the checkerboard test, it was demonstrated that Q-values could be robustly estimated by using the 2D Q tomography inversion method even in the presence of perturbed source and site effects from the true input model.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.357-363
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• 2010

In this study, we investigated the geologic structure of the basement and overlying sediments of the construction site of the dinosaur egg fossil museum in Hwasung, Gyeonggi Province through refraction seismology, drilling, and downward seismic velocity measurements in the drill holes. The construction site ($350{\times}750\;m^2$) is located in the reclaimed area south of Sihwa Lake, Gojeong-ri. About 6,950 m of seismic refraction data consisting of 11 lines were acquired using a sledge hammer source. Drilling to the basement was performed at five sites. Sediment samples from drilling were analysed for grain-size distribution and age dating. At two drill holes, seismic velocity was measured with depth using a hammer as a seismic source. The geological structure of the study area consists of, from top to bottom, a tidal flat layer (5 ~ 12 m thick), a weathered soil layer (2 ~ 8 m thick), and the basement. The basement is interpreted as Cretaceous sedimentary rocks that tend to be shallow eastward. The volume of the tidal flat sediments and weathered soil in the study area is estimated as $1.4{\times}10^6\;m^3$, weighing $3.5{\times}10^6$ tons. The rate of sea level rise since 8,000 yrs BP is estimated to be 0.1 ~ 0.15 cm/yr.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.39-46
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• 2012

Recently, stratigraphic reservoirs are getting more attention than structural reservoirs which have mostly developed. However, recognizing stratigraphic thin gas reservoirs in a stacked section is usually difficult because of tuning effects. Moreover, if the reflections from the brine-saturated region of a thin layer have the same polarity with those from the gas-saturated region, we could not easily identify the gas reservoir with conventional data processing technique. In this study, we introduced a way to delineate the gas-saturated region in a thin layer reservoir using a spectral decomposition method. First of all, amplitude spectrum with the variation of the frequency and the incident angle was investigated for the medium which represents property of Class 3, Class 1 or Class 4 AVO response. The results show that the maximum difference in the amplitude spectra between brine and gas-saturated thin layers occurs around the peak frequency independent of the incident angle and the type of AVO responses. In addition, the amplitude spectra of the gas-saturated zone are greater than those of brine-saturated one in Class 3 and Class 4 at the peak frequency while those of phenomenon occur oppositely in Class 1. Based on the results, we applied spectral decomposition method to the stacked section in order to distinguish the gas-saturated zone from the brine-saturated zone in a thin layer reservoir. To verify our new method, we constructed a thin-layer velocity model which contains both gas and brine-saturated zones which have the same reflection polarities. As a result, in the spectral decomposed sections near the peak frequency obtained by Wigner-Ville Distribution (WVD), we could identify the difference between reflections from gas- and brinesaturated region in the thin layer reservoir, which was hardly distinguishable in the stacked section.

• The Korean Journal of Petroleum Geology
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• v.2 no.2 s.3
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• pp.59-70
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• 1994

The Cenozoic geological structures and the tectonic evolution of the southern Ulleung Basin were studied with seismic profiles and exploration well data. Basement structure of the Korea Strait is distinctly characterized by normal faults trending northeast to southwest. The normal faults of the basement are most likely related to the initial liking and extensional tectonics of Ulleung Basin. Tsushima fault along the west coast of Tsushima islands runs northeastward to the central Ulleung Basin. The Middle Miocene and older sequences in the Tsushima Strait show folds and faults mostly trending northeast to southwest. These folds and faults may be interpreted as a result of compressional tectonics. The Late Miocene to Qauternary sequences are not much deformed, but numerous faults mostly N-S trending are dominated in the Tsushima Strait. The Ulleung Basin was in intial rifting during Oligocene, and then active extension and subsidence from Early to early Middle Miocene. Therefore SW Japan separated from Korea Peninsula and drifted toward southeast, and Ulleung Basin was formed as a pull-apart basin under dextral transtensional tectonic regime. During rifting and extensional stage, Tsushima fault as a main tectonic line separating SW Japan block from the Korean Peninsula acted as a normal faulting with right-lateral strike-slip motion as SW Japan drifted southeastward. During middle Middle Miocene to early Late Miocene, the opening of Ulleung basin stopped and uplifted due to compressional tectonics. The southwest Japan block converging on the Korean Peninsula caused compressional stress to the southern margin of Ulleung Basin, resulting in strong deformation under sinistral transpressional tectonic regime. Tsushima fault acted as thrust fault with left-lateral strike-slip motion. From middle Late Miocene to Quaternary, the southern margin of Ulleung Basin has been controlled by compressional motion. Thus the Tsushima fault still appears to be an active thrust fault by compressional tectonic regime.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.31-44
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• 2009

The objective of this study was to measure backscattering coefficients of paddy rice using a L-, C-, and X-band scatterometer system with full polarization and various angles during the rice growth period and to relate backscattering coefficients to rice growth parameters. Radar backscattering measurements of paddy rice field using multifrequency (L, C, and X) and full polarization were conducted at an experimental field located in National Academy of Agricultural Science (NAAS), Suwon, Korea. The scatterometer system consists of dual-polarimetric square horn antennas, HP8720D vector network analyzer ($20\;MHz{\sim}20\;GHz$), RF cables, and a personal computer that controls frequency, polarization and data storage. The backscattering coefficients were calculated by applying radar equation for the measured at incidence angles between $20^{\circ}$ and $60^{\circ}$ with $5^{\circ}$ interval for four polarization (HH, VV, HV, VH), respectively. We measured the temporal variations of backscattering coefficients of the rice crop at L-, C-, X-band during a rice growth period. In three bands, VV-polarized backscattering coefficients were higher than hh-polarized backscattering coefficients during rooting stage (mid-June) and HH-polarized backscattering coefficients were higher than VV-, HV/VH-polarized backscattering coefficients after panicle initiation stage (mid-July). Cross polarized backscattering coefficients in X-band increased towards the heading stage (mid-Aug) and thereafter saturated, again increased near the harvesting season. Backscattering coefficients of range at X-band were lower than that of L-, C-band. HH-, VV-polarized ${\sigma}^{\circ}$ steadily increased toward panicle initiation stage and thereafter decreased, and again increased near the harvesting season. We plotted the relationship between backscattering coefficients with L-, C-, X-band and rice growth parameters. Biomass was correlated with L-band hh-polarization at a large incident angle. LAI (Leaf Area Index) was highly correlated with C-band HH- and cross-polarizations. Grain weight was correlated with backscattering coefficients of X-band VV-polarization at a large incidence angle. X-band was sensitive to grain maturity during the post heading stage.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.50-58
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• 2005

Recently, the imaging of geological structures beneath water-covered areas has been in great demand because of numerous tunnel and bridge construction projects on river or lake sites. An electrical resistivity survey can be effective in such a situation because it provides a subsurface image of faults or weak zones beneath the water layer. Even though conventional resistivity surveys in water-covered areas, in which electrodes are installed on the water bottom, do give high-resolution subsurface images, much time and effort is required to install electrodes. Therefore, an easier and more convenient method is sought to find the strike direction of the main zones of weakness, especially for reconnaissance surveys. In this paper, we investigate the applicability of the streamer resistivity survey method, which uses electrodes in a streamer cable towed by ship or boat, for delineating a fault zone. We do this through numerical experiments with models of water-covered areas. We demonstrate that the fault zone can be imaged, not only by installing electrodes on the water bottom, but also by using floating electrodes, when the depth of water is less than twice the electrode spacing. In addition, we compare the signal-to-noise ratio and resolving power of four kinds of electrode arrays that can be adapted to the streamer resistivity method. Following this numerical study, we carried out both conventional and streamer resistivity surveys for the planned tunnel construction site located at the Han River in Seoul, Korea. To obtain high-resolution resistivity images we used the conventional method, and installed electrodes on the water bottom along the planned route of the tunnel beneath the river. Applying a two-dimensional inversion scheme to the measured data, we found three distinctive low-resistivity anomalies, which we interpreted as associated with fault zones. To determine the strike direction of these three fault zones, we used the quick and convenient streamer resistivity.