• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.531-538
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• 2008

The mode of occurrence of petrified woods from the Tertiary strata of Pohang Basin in Kyeongsangbug-do suggests that the petrified woods are all allochthonous fossils. Petrified woods as well as various types of wood fossils such as carbonized woods and charcoal woods were found. However, some lignified organic remains are rarely found in the bark part of petrified woods. X-ray diffraction analysis showed three types of minerals including Opal-CT, Opal-C, and quartz+cristobalite. The presence of these minerals indicates that silicification occurred under the low temperature. The tuffs are considered to be main source of supply of silica. Analysis of the kind of composing minerals and the condition of tissue preservation can predict that silicification is mainly occurred by replacement.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.113-126
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• 2017

In order to investigate the geological storage potential of $CO_2$, X-ray diffraction analysis were conducted for drilling core samples collected from the two drilling sites located in Yonil group of the Miocene Pohang Basin. As a result, various minerals were identified such as quartz, plagioclase, orthoclase opal-CT, smectite, mica, illite, kaolin mineral, chlorite, calcite, gypsum, pyrite, dolomite, and siderite. Smectite was detected in almost all of core samples, and relatively large amounts of smectite were observed in the cores from deeper strata. Opal-CT, mainly occurred in the upper interval of cores, was formed by diagenesis of amorphous diatoms. It shows a tendency that d101 value of cristobalite decreases with depth from $4.10{\AA}$ to $4.05{\AA}$. The almost identical variations in mineral composition with depth are observed at the two sites. This fact indicates that rocks distributed at the two sites were probably deposited in the similar depositional environments. It is determined that the strata in the study area can play roles of cap-rock for $CO_2$ storage, because the considerable amounts of smectite were contained in the rocks through the cores.

• 한국석유지질학회:학술대회논문집
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• spring
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• pp.48-55
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• 1998

The Pohang Basin is located in Pohang City and adjacent coastal areas in the southeastern Korea. It has a sequence of 900 meters of Neogene marine sediments (Yeonil Group) while offshore basins in the East Sea, e.g., the Ulleng basin, is over 10 Km in thickness. An understanding of the marine Yeonil Group in the Pohang Basin may provide insights into the hydrocarbon potential of the offshore East Sea regions. Heulandite, smectite, dolomite, kaolinite and opal-CT are commonly found as diagenetic minerals in the Yeonil Group. Among these minerals, heulandite occurs as a main cement only in sandstones consisting of volcanic matrix, Smectite composition and diagenetic mineral facies such as heulandite and opal-CT may reflect that the Yeonil Group has undergone shallow burial, temperatures below about 60 degrees. This suggest that sandstones have experiened weak diagenetic alteration. In order to reconstruct the thermal history of the basin, apatite fission-track analysis was carried out. Aapparent apatite fission-track ages (AFTAs) exhibit a broader range of ages from 238 Ma to 27 Ma with mean track lengths in the range of $15.24\pm8.0$ micrometers, indicating that these samples had undergone significant predepositional thermal alteration. The Triassic to Cretaceous AFTAs seem In represent the timing of cooling of their sedimentary sources. Late Cretaceous mean AFTA $(79.0\pm8.0 Ma)$ on the Neogene Yeonil Group indicates that the Yeonil Group had not been buried deeper than 2km since its deposition. The organic matters of. the Pohang Basin remain in the immature stage of thermal evolution because burial depth and temperature were not sufficient enough for maturation even in the deep section of the basin.

• The Korean Journal of Petroleum Geology
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• v.9 no.1_2 s.10
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• pp.16-23
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• 2001

The study area in the East Sea is located on the northeastern margins of the Ulleung Basin near the Kita-Yamato Bank. The research area provides the important clue to the development of Miocene basins which are characterized by the normal faults and volcanic activities related to rifting in the continental crust. Kita-Yamato Bank is a small sediment-filled graben which was formed by failed rifting in the Early Miocene. The basins rapidly vary the bathymetry, depth of acoustic basement and thickness of sedimentary layer. The tension in the study area caused the extensional lithospheric deformation before/during the Early Miocene. In consequence, tectonic forces resulted in the depression or subsidence of basement from continental rifting in the Kita-Yamato Bank followed by the opening of the Ulleung Basin, and caused the onset of graben or half-graben structure bounded by large blocked syn-rift faults. Afterward no significant tectonic deformation exists, with the consequence that post-rift normal faults with small heave were formed and reactivated by the resultant forces such as tectonic subsidence, sediment loading and volcanic activity. The Cenozoic sediment layer has a maximum thickness of 1.0 s along the center of the graben or half-graben, which overlies the consolidated acoustic basement. Seismic units V and IV supposed to be syn-rift sedimentary rocks are deformed by both the volcanic activities and numerous basement-involved normal faults induced from extension. In the uppermost layer, slump scars resulted from the slope failure are recognized.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.49-59
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• 2004

Organic smectite was hydrothermally synthesized by treating the opal-rich siliceous mudstone from the Pohang area with TMAOH solutions and 1:1 solutions of TMAOH+NaOH at $80^{\circ}C$ and concentrations ranging 10∼15%. Smectite was solely formed without accompanying any mineral products in case of TMAOH, whereas NaP and hydroxysodalite was synthesized together with smectite under the blending solution of TMAOH+NaOH. The synthesized smectite is identified as an organic smectite intercalating $TMA^{+}$ within its interlayer site, specifically corresponding to monmorillonite species, through mineralogical characterization by XRD, DTA, and IR analyses. The experimental results indicate that main precursor of the synthesized smectite is undoubtedly opal-CT, and the original sedimentary smectite included as considerable amounts in the mudstone seems to play a major role as Al-sources necessary far the smectite formation. Original inert components such as quartz and mica do not affect mostly to the synthesis reaction, and thus, are resultantly found as impurities in the synthetic products. These experimental results may imply that a new effective method for the low-temperature (less than $100^{\circ}C$) hydrothermal synthesis of organic smectite will be established if some Al-sources adequate for this synthetic system are available.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.329-344
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• 2002

Mineralogical and chemical characterization of some domestic bentonites, such as quantitative XRD analysis, chemical leaching experiments, pH and CEC determinations, were done without any separation procedures to understand their relationships among mineral composition, characteristics, and cation exchange properties. XRD quantification results based on Rietveld method reveal that the bentonites contain totally more than 25 wt% of impurities, such as zeolites, opal-CT, and feldspars, in addition to montmorillonite ranging 30～75 wt%. Cation exchange properties of the zeolitic bentonites are deeply affected by the content of zeolites identified as clinoptilolite-heulandite series. Clinoptilolite is common in the silicic bentonites with lighter color. and occurs closely in association with opal-CT. Ca is mostly the dominant exchangeable cation, but some zeolitic bentonites have K as a major exchangeable cation, The values of cation exchange capacity (CEC) determined by Methylene Blue method are comparatively low and have roughly a linear relationship with the montmorillonite content of the bentonite, though the correlated data tend to be rather dispersed. Compared to this, the CEC determined by Ammonium Acetate method, i.e.‘Total CEC’, has much higher values (50～115 meq/100 g). The differences between those CEC values are much greater in zeolitic bentonites, which obviously indicates the CEC increase affected by zeolite. Other impurities such as opal-CT and feldspars seem to affect insignificantly on the CEC of bentonites. When dispersed in distilled water, the pH of bentonites roughly tends to increase up to 9.3 with increasing the alkali abundance, especially Na, in exchangeable cation composition. However, some bentonites exhibit lower pH (5～6) so as to regard as ‘acid clay’. This may be due to the presence of $H^{＋}$ in part as an exchangeable cation in the layer site of montmorillonite. All the works of this study ultimately suggest that an assesment of domestic bentonites in grade and quality should be accomplished through the quantitative XRD analysis and the ‘Total CEC’measurement.

• The Korean Journal of Petroleum Geology
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• v.2 no.2 s.3
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• pp.91-99
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• 1994

In the Heunghae area, genetic relationships among sedimentary facies, lithology, stratigraphy and diagenetic mineral facies of the Yeonil Group, are discussed. Conglomerate and sandstone of lower to middle parts of the Yeonil Group contain considerable amounts of volcaniclastic sediments, which were derived from the Tertiary volcanics exposed in the western margins of the sedimentary basin. A new stratigraphic division of the Yeonil Group into the Chunbuk and Pohang Formations is proposed on the basis of sedimentary facies, lithologic characteristics including volcaniclastic feature, and the presence of a key bed of siliceous mudstone overlying the Chunbuk Formation. Diagenetic mineral facies largely depend on the lithology and composition of sediments. Heulandite, smectite, calcite, and opal-CT are commonly found as diagenetic minerals in the Yeonil Group. Among these authigenic minerals, heulandite occurs as the coarse- grained main cement in conglomerates and sandstones of the Chunbuk Formation. Formation of the zeolite cement is favored by partial volcaniclastic lithology of the Chunbuk Formation. Smectite composition and diagenetic mineral facies such as heulandite and opal-CT may reflect that the Yeoil Group has undergone a shallow rial temperature ranging $40{\~}60^{\circ}C$.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 1995

The smectite-rich clays were found locally in Paleozoic calcareous sedimentary rocks in the Samcheok area. Their occurrences were investigated in detail, and the physico-chemical properties of the clays were also determined by X-ray diffraction, chemical analysis, thermal analysis and cation exchanging experiment. The smectite clays occur as the fissure filling dyke developed in calcareous sedimentary rock and as alteration products of intrusive rhyolite. Most of clays occur at the contact between the sedimentary rock and the rhyolite, and the alteration zone was observed only in rhyolite body close to the contact. Judging from their occurrences, it is believed that the smectite-rich clays in this area were formed by the hydrothemal alteration. The smectite clays from the area are mainly composed of Ca-montmorillonite, and associated with small quantities of quartz, opal-CT and feldspar. The montmorillonites from this area are lower in Fe content, and higher in exchangeable Ca ion, compared to those of bentonite from the Yangnam-Yeongil area.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.3 s.49
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• pp.197-207
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• 2006

In the coal-bearing formations of the Janggi Group, which are reported as typical clastic sediments, several beds of volcaniclastic rocks are actually found in the Yeongil area. The coal-bearing formations generally exhibit alternating lithologic characteristics of pyroclastic and epiclastic sedimentary facies. Tuff and tuffaceous sandstone rich in pumice fragments are characteristic in the coal-bearing fermations. Diagenetic minerals found in the pyroclastic rocks of the upper and lower coal-bearing formations are montmorillonite, clinoptilolite, opal-CT, and quartz. Several tuffaceous beds correspond to the low-grade ores of zeolites and bentonite, and moreover, these ores mostly occur as thin beds less than 1 m in thickness. Thus, the potential of altered tuffaceous rocks as the resources typical of zeolite and bentonite seems to be low. However, based on mineral composition and CEC determinations, it can be evaluated that these tuffaceous rocks mostly have the promising potential for utilization as the absorbent-functional mineral resources such as acid clays, if these low-grade ores plus adjacent tuffaceous rocks are collectively exploited.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.171-185
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• 2000

Siliceous mudstones are embedded on a large scale in the Tertiary formations of Pohang area. Some useful zeolites such as NsP, (Na, TMA)P, analcime and hydroxysodalite were synthesized from the siliceous mudstones by treating with the variety of solution, i.e ., NaOH, NaOH+NaCl, NaOH, NaOH+$NaAlO_2$and NaOH+TMAOH at the low-temperature hydrothermal system ranging 60~12$0^{\circ}C$. Major precursor of zeolites is found as opal-CT in the zeolite-forming reaction. Smectite, which is included in considerable amounts in the mudstone, appears to play a major role of Al-source in the zeolite synthesis. In comparison, chalcedonic quartz and mica are rather insoluble in alkaline solution, and thus, these are observed as major impurities in the reaction products. An addition of $NaAlO_2$to NaOH solution is effective for eliminating these impurities in the reaction procedure, through these are partly dissolved when elevating the reaction temperature, concentration, and time. Phase change from NaP to hydroxysodalite takes place at the NaOH concentrations of 3.0~4.0 M, and the reaction is not sensitive to the temperature shift. NaP is more stable at lower NaOH concentration and higher activity of $Na_{+}$ whereas analcime is sensitive to the temperature change and stable at higher than $100^{\circ}C$ and 2.0~4.0 M in NaOH concentration. For the pure NaP synthesis without any other products, the treatment of mudstones with 1:1 solution of NaOH and $NaAlO _2$ turns out to be quite effective. NaP was successfully synthesized together with analcime at $100^{\circ}C$ as well as lower concentrations of NaOH+NaCl solution. In addition, the organic type, (Na, TMA)P was formed together with smectite in the 1:1 solution of NaOH and TMAOH.