• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.40-48
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• 1994

The weathering of the Namsan granite was studied in terms of sorption process. The Namsan granite consists mainly of quartz, alkali feldspar, plagioclase (${Ab_{85}An_{15}}-Ab_{100}$ and biotite with small amounts of sericite, magnetite and ilmenite. The kinetic factors for altering the granite body are the proton and hydroxyl ions derived from the reaction of water and mineral. There are two different types of pH variation curves for rocks of different mineral assemblages. when powdered granite was dispersed in distilled water under ambient condition. The sorption-process proceeds by three steps for fresh granite; (1) the initial rapid pH-rise to 10 by the uptake of proton by negatively charged mineral surfaces, (2) the gradual pH-down, and (3) the stable pH tail between 7.1-7.5. For somewhat weathered granites, the sorption proceeds; (1) the initial rapid pH-down to 4.8, (2) the slight pH-rise and slow ph-down, and (3) the stable pH tail between 5.0-5.3. The reaction rate is controlled by the density of adsorbable sites, the solubility of the mineral, pH of the system and formation of amorphous gel and gibbsite. Amorphous gel floates on the surface of the solution while stirring the powdered granite and then is transformed into gibbsite in an hour or so. The pH saturation values for -325 mesh fresh granite from 5 m depth is about pH 10 when rock/water ratio is over 10g/200 ml.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.63-71
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• 2010

The artificial rains having different pH and weathering simulation test were performed for Gyeongju Namsan granite and dacitic tuff to predict the role of acid rain in the deterioration of stone monuments located in Gyeongju area. The pH 4.0 rain reacted with the fresh granite showed near neutral pH at the early stage due to the hydrolysis of minerals in the rock surface. But the pH changed back to the initial pH in the later stage. On the other hand, the pH 5.6 rain showed the neutral pH for a longer time than the experiment with pH 4.0 rain, reflecting slower reaction of minerals due to the weaker acidity. When the pH 5.6 rain reacted with the weathered granite, the water showed neutral pH longer than the case of the fresh granite. The similar tendencies were observed in the experiment of dacitic tuff, except that the pH 4.0 rain reacted with dacitic tuff took a longer time to go back to the initial pH as compared with the case of granite. These results may due to the differences in mineral composition and texture of two rocks. Dacitic tuff contains more fine-grained or glassy groundmass than granite and is more reactive with weaker acid rain. It was predicted that the weight loss and strength decrease rate of dacitic tuff would be approximatetly twice relative to those of granite in the same experimental environment.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.355-364
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• 2004

A study on the weathering grade classification has been performed for granite and granite gneiss in Korea. The qualitative classification criteria of weathering were reviewed and then modified with field studies for the weathered rock masses. The thin section observations and XRD analyses for the different weathering grades rock samples showed the petrographical and petrophysical difference with respect to the weathering : the proportion of weathering-resistant minerals suck at quartz and orthoclase has a tendency to increase with the development of weathering, but that of weathering-sensible minerals such as anorthite and biotite is decreased. The ranges of physical and mechanical rock properties for different weathering grades were obtained from the laboratory rock tests and field tests for the studied rocks. And then, along with $RDI_{sq}$(Fookes et al., 1988), the weathering index $I_{a}$, (Woo, 2003) has been developed in this study to demarcate the weathering grade. Those two indices rely mainly on the water absorption ratio of rock and on the different rock strength. The range of these weathering indices have been determined with the physical and mechanical rock properties that can be obtained from simple field or laboratory tests in 4 grades $I_{a}$＞ 7 for F, 3.5 ＜ $I_{a}$ ＜ 10 for SW, 1.0 $I_{a}$＜ 6.0 for MW and $I_{a}$＜ 2.5 for HW. Consequently, the weathering index could be utilized to classify quantitatively the rock weathering grade, especially for the studied granites and the granite gneiss in Korea.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.104 no.4
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• pp.588-597
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• 2015

This study was carried out to identify the reasons of the landslide by land creeping in South Korea in order to provide basic information for establishing the management plan for prevention. Total 29 sites of landslide areas caused by land creeping were observed in South Korea. Among them, the soil-composition of most frequent landslide areas occurred by land creeping was colluvium landslide as 75.9% (22 sites), followed by clay soil landslide as 10.3% (3 sites), bedrock landslide as 6.9% (2 sites), and weathered rock landslide as 6.9% (2 sites). According to the types of parental rocks, the investigated landslide areas were divided into 3 types: 1) metamorphic rocks including schist, phylite, migmatitic gneiss, quartz schist, pophyroblastic gneiss, leucocratic granite, mica schst, banded gneiss and granitic gneiss, 2) sedimentary rocks including limestone, sandstone or shale and mudstone, 3) igneous rocks such as granite, andesite, rhyolite and masanite. As a result, it was noticed that the landslides occurred mostly at the metamorphic rocks areas (13 sites; 44.8%), followed by sedimentary rock areas (12 sites; 41.4%), and igneous rock areas (4 sites; 13.8%). Looking at the direct causes of the landslide, the anthropological activities (71%) such as cut slopes for quarrying, construction of country house, plant, and road, farming of mountain top, and reservoir construction were the biggest causes of the landslides, followed by the land creeping landslides (22%) caused by geological or naturally occurred (22%), and cliff erosions (7%) by caving of rivers and valleys.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.429-438
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• 2022

This study evaluated the effect of the degree of weathering on the particle size distribution and the amount of fine particles generated in the aggregate production process during the crushing of igneous rock. Rock samples were collected from three areas with differences in strength from the Schmith hammer measurement at the aggregate quarry in Geochang, Gyeongsangbuk-do. After crushing with a jaw crusher under the same conditions in laboratory, particle size analysis, mineral analysis, chemical analysis, and weathering index were calculated. The Schmidt hammer measurements were 56, 28, and <10, and the CIA and CIW values of weathering index were also different, so the rock samples were classified into hard rock, soft rock, and weathered rock according to the weathering degree. It shows a smaller particle size distribution toward weathered rocks under the microscope, and the proportion of altered clay minerals such as sericite increased. The composition of feldspar and quartz was high for hard rock, and the ratio of muscovite and kaolinite was low. As a result of the crushing of the jaw crusher, hard rock produced a lot of coarse crushed material (13.2mm), while soft rock and weathered rock produced fine crushed material (4.75mm). The former showed the characteristics of the beta distribution curve, and the latter showed the bimodal distribution curve. The production of fine rock particles (based on 0.71mm of sieve, wt. %) increased to 13%<21%<22% in hard rock, soft rock, and weathered rock, and the greater the degree of weathering, the more fine rock particles were generated. The fine particles are recovered by the operation of the sand unit in the wet aggregate production process. Therefore, in order to minimize the amount of sludge generated in the aggregate production process, it was judged that a study on the optimal operation of cyclones could be necessary.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.461-465
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• 2010

Weathering and permeability in rocks play a very important role in underground disposal of radioactive waste and their long-term management as well as stability security of rock structures. Weathering and permeability of rocks are largely controlled by the characters of inner structures of rocks. In other words, weathering rate can be accelerated depending on the quantity of pore and microcrack in rocks. Quantitative evaluation of inner structures of rocks can serve as a tool that can assess the degree of weathering of rocks. Therefore it can be said that the understanding of three dimensional distribution of the inner structure of rocks is important for long-term management of rock structures. This study was performed to analyze three dimensional distribution of pore in rocks using Micro Focus X-ray CT on fresh granite and weathered granite from Korea. Results of the analysis clearly show distribution of pore and porosity of the inner rock.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.805-814
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• 2008

This study focused on the resilient modulus prediction model, which is the functions of mean effective principal stress and axial strain, for three types of railroad trackbed materials such as crushed stone, weathered soil, and crushed-rock soil mixture. The model is composed with the maximum Young's modulus and nonlinear values for higher strain in parallel with dynamic shear modulus. The maximum values is modeled by model parameters, $A_E$ and the power of mean effective principal stress, $n_E$. The nonlinear portion is represented by modified hyperbolic model, with the model parameters of reference strain, ${\varepsilon}_r$ and curvature coefficient, a. To assess the performance of the prediction models proposed herein, the elastic response of a test trackbed near PyeongTaek, Korea was evaluated using a 3-D nonlinear elastic computer program (GEOTRACK) and compared with measured elastic vertical displacement during the passages of freight and passenger trains. The material types of sub-ballasts are crushed stone and weathered granite soil, respectively. The calculated vertical displacements within the sub-ballasts are within the order of 0.6mm, and agree well with measured values with the reasonable margin. The prediction models are thus concluded to work properly in the preliminary investigation.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.2 s.48
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• pp.63-69
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• 2006

When rocks are exposed to the near surface environment, they are broken down due to several factors such as physical and chemical weathering during the geologic time. The feldspar and mica, which are the main rock-forming minerals, are easily broken down relative to other minerals. In order to reproduce some weathered minerals similar to the ones exist in natural weathered granite, there was an experimental interaction between fresh minerals and acidic solution. In low pH condition, biotite initially dissolved and its surface structure broke down, whereas plagioclase dissolved and had a needle-shaped dissolved morphology with some precipitates composed of Al element. The minerals were deeply dissolved in a strong acid condition, showing the prominent dissolved structure. Some etch pits and dissolved textures developed on the natural mineral surfaces are similarly found in our experiment, suggesting the development of mineral dissolution and weathering texture by the influence of the mineral's intrinsic nature.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.468-479
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• 2002

This study attempts to characterize Taebaek mountainous region as a natural unit, relating to morphoclimatic milieu and landform development patterns of the mountains of each lithologic type. In the case of granitic mountains of Nothern parts of this region, the slopes presents more or less steep or irregular profile because of abundant microforms of exposed bedrocks and blocks. The development of such landscape is essentially due to differential weathering, associated with difference of joint density. In the case of gneissic mountains, the slopes are well regularized straight steep ones, due not only to generalized superficial weathering but also to massmovement of weathered materials. In the Middle parts of this region, especially in Taegwallyong area, with frequent alternations both of freezing-thawing and of snow accumulation-melting, the roles played by cryo-nival processes proved to be important in weathering of granite as well as in morpho-pedogenesis. In this area, weathered mantle, developed by cryogenic activity under humid condition of nival environment, covered almost all over the slopes. Although Southern parts of this region consist of limestone, on the mountainous volume, distribution of Karst forms are limited while predominate none karst forms such as cockpit type peaks, V-shaped type valleys dissecting steep slopes covered with thin deposits in thickness containing rock debris.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.1-8
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• 1999

Forest devastation in Korea was caused by several factors such as internal factors from geological features and external factors from artificial forest damages including fuel wood collection from forests, forest fires, shifting cultivations and so on. According to the reports of 1935, lots of forest devastation in Kyungpook province area occurred around the main and branch stream of Nakdong river. Main factors of occurring forest devastation in 1935 were investigated by the methods of forest devastation rate and the population density at the basin of Nakdong river. But based on our study, forest devastation mainly occurred in rock zones of granite and granite gneiss, next to Nakdong formation but scarcely occurred in Hayang formation. Clay of the weathered soils of granite and granite gneiss was lost by rainfall, but remaining coarse-sandy soils(or grits) have poored conditions in vegetation's growth, which are due to high level of water permeability, lack of water-holding capacity and dried conditions. Generally, pine forests are mainly growing up in these regions. It is supposed that forest devastation was accelerated due to long periods of natural regeneration and no ability of natural regeneration by sprout after frequent collections of fuel wood and cuttings from pine forest on those grit areas. These results indicated that the high rate of forest devastation occurred around the basin with the high resident population density, which was partly due to forest damages by fuel collection. Moreover, both geological features and number of residents had much influence on forest devastation. Forest devastation was positively correlated with those variables(r=+0.73).