• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.80-86
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• 2016

Earthquakes of M5.1, M5.8 and M4.5 occurred in September 12 and 19 respectively in Gyeongju, Gyeongbuk Province. Theses earthquakes inflated fears of people and highlighted necessity of detailed countermeasures because we have considered our country is safe to earthquakes. In the meanwhile, earthquake also impacts groundwater and thus it was recently reported that the Gyeongju Earthquakes affected groundwater there. This study evaluates daily groundwater data collected from five national groundwater monitoring stations (Geoncheon, Sannae, Oedong, Yangbuksin, Cheonbuk) in Gyeongju. The analysis revealed that only groundwater level of bedrock monitoring well hosted in andesite exhibited earthquake impact while no wells in the other four stations hosted in sedimentary rocks showed substantial responses to the earthquakes. This may be derived from the difference of seismic velocity of hosting rocks as well as epicenter distance. Special interest on groundwater monitoring is required to predict earthquakes as precursory phenomena.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.401-414
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• 2017

To prevent the damages from earthquakes, various researches have been conducted around the world focusing on earthquake prediction and forecasting for several decades. Among various precursory phenomena, changes in groundwater level and quality are considered to be reliable for estimating the time of earthquake occurrence and its magnitude. In effects, some countries impacted by frequent earthquakes have established and operated the groundwater monitoring network for earthquake surveillance and prediction. In Korea, recently researches have begun for using groundwater monitoring techniques for earthquake prediction. In this paper, the groundwater monitoring networks of China, Japan, and the United States were reviewed focusing on the facilities and results of researches to deduce the tasks for earthquake prediction researches using groundwater monitoring techniques in Korea. In results, research needs are suggested in the implementation of groundwater monitoring networks for specifically earthquake surveillance with the real-time monitoring and the measures to quantify the degrees of abnormal changes in the relationship of distance from the earthquake epicenter.