• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.273-279
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• 2007

In order to estimate the sedimentation rates of continental shelf and slope of Ulleung Basin in the Southwestern East Sea, $^{210}Pb,\;^{226}Ra\;and\;^{137}Cs$ were simultaneously measured by a well-type high purity germanium(HPGe) gamma detector. $^{137}Cs$ was used to determine whether the sediment were affected by bioturbation or not, and to judge the accuracy of estimated sedimentation rates. The estimated sedimentation rates decreased exponentially from slope to basin - 0.6 cm/yr in the continental shelf, $0.3{\sim}0.4$ cm/yr in the slope, and below 0.2 cm/yr in the margin of Ulleung basin. From our and other research results, we suggest followings about sediment transport of the study area. The sediment particles were transported by coastal current from south to north through the Korea Straight. And much of them were accumulated in the shelf area. And then, the rest of sediment particles were deposited in the lower slope and the southwest margin of the basin. Also the excess $^{210}Pb$ profiles indicate that the depositional processes in the study area may have been very complicate.

• Journal of the Korean Geophysical Society
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.27-38
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• 1999

The errors between track segments or at the cross-over points of shipborne gravity were successfully reduced by applying a cross-over error adjustment technique using satellite gravity. The integration of shipborne and satellite altimeter-implied free-air gravity anomalies after the cross-over error adjustment resulted in a high resolution gravity map which contains both short and long wavelength components. The successful adjustment of the cross-over errors in the shipborne gravity using the satellite gravity suggests that the shipborne gravity can be combined with the satellite anomalies characterized by a stable and long wavelength component. The resulting free-air anomaly map is evenly harmonized with both short and long wavelength anomalies. Thus the corrected anomaly map can be better used for the geological interpretation. Free-air anomalies with more than 140 mGal in total variations generally correspond to the seafloor topographic changes in their regional patterns. A series of gravity highs are aligned from the Korea Plateau to the Oki Island, which are interpreted to be caused by seamounts or volcanic topographies. The gravity minima along the western and southern shelf edge are associated not only with the local basement morphology and thick sediment fill at the continental margin, but also possibly with the crustal edge effect known for passive continental margins. Series of NE-trending linear anomalies are possibly caused by a swarm of volcanic intrusions followed the initial opening of the Ulleung Basin. The linear high anomalies in the Ulleung Plateau are terminated by the straightly NNW-trending anomalies with a sharp gradient in its western boundary which indicates a fault-line scarp. The opposite side adjoined with the fault-line scarp shows no correlation with the fault-line scarp in geometry indicating that the block might be horizontally slided from the north. A gravity high in contrast to the deepening in seafloor toward the northeastern central Ulleung Basin is probably responsible for the thin crust and shallow seated mantle. The gravity minima along the western and southern shelf edge are associated not only with the local basement morphology and thick sediment fill at the continental margin, but also possibly with the crustal edge effect known for passive continental margins. Series of NE-trending linear anomalies are possibly caused by a swarm of volcanic intrusions followed the initial opening of the Ulleung Basin. The linear high anomalies in the Ulleung Plateau are terminated by the straightly NNW-trending anomalies with a sharp gradient in its western boundary which indicates a fault-line scarp. The opposite side adjoined with the fault-line scarp shows no correlation with the fault-line scarp in geometry indicating that the block might be horizontally slided from the north. A gravity high in contrast to the deepening in seafloor toward the northeastern central Ulleung Basin is probably suggestive of a thin crust and shallow seated mantle.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.89-112
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• 2012

The Korean Peninsula consists of three Precambrian blocks: Nangrim, Gyeonggi and Yeongnam massifs. Here we revisited previous stratigraphic relationships, largely based on new geochronologic data, and investigated the crustal evolution history of the Precambrian massifs. The Precambrian strata have been usually divided into lower crystalline basements and upper supracrustal rocks. The former has been considered as Archean or Paleoproterozoic in age, whereas the latter as Paleoproterozoic or later. However, both are revealed as the Paleoproterozoic (2.3-1.8 Ga) strata as a whole, and Archean strata are very limited in the Korean Peninsula. These make the previous stratigraphic system wrong and require reconsideration. The oldest age of the basement rocks can be dated as old as Paleoarchean, suggested by the occurrence of ~3.6 Ga inherited zircon. However, most of crust-forming materials were extracted from mantle around ~2.7 Ga, and produced major portions of crust materials at ~2.5 Ga, which make each massif a discrete continental mass. After that, all the massifs belonged to continental margin orogen during the Paleoproterozoic time, and experienced repeated intracrustal differentiation. After the final cratonization occurring at ~1.9-1.8 Ga, they were stabilized as continental platforms. The Nangrim and Gyeonggi massif included local sedimentary deposition as well as igneous activity during Meso-to Neoproterozoic, but the Yeongnam massif remained stable before the development of Paleozoic basin.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.247-261
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• 1994

Honam Shear Zone is a mylonite zone approximately parallel to the NE-SW trend located southern part of Korea peninsula. Geologic ages and petrogenesis of foliated granites in this zone are as follows: Igneous rocks of this zone are composed of granite gneiss, Paleozoic granites, Songrim granites, Jurassic granites and Cretaceous granites. Foliated granites show deformed phase of Paleozoic and Songrim granites during Daebo Orogeny. And isotopic ages obtained from foliated granites are early Permian to late Triassic period (276~200 Ma). Most of foliated granite masses are igneous complex consisting of a series of differential product of cogenetic magma. The individual rock mass of foliated granites plotted on Harker diagram shows mostly similar trend of calc-alkali series. REE diagram indicates that LREE amount of foliated granites are more enriched than HREE and negative Eu anomalies of them are weaker than those of the other granites. From these data, we suggest the rocks are generated from continental margin under syntectonic environment. Original magma type of foliated granites correspond to I-type, syn-collision type and Hercyano type. In compressive stress field between Ogcheon folded belt and Youngnam massif, foliated granites had formed due to mylonitic deformation. Those facts indicate that magma of foliated granites would had been generated by melting in lower crust or contamination in upper mantle.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.157-162
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• 2007

Geophysical survey has been conducted on the continental margin off the South Shetland Islands aboard R/V Onnuri of KORDI in 1992/1993. About 800-line km of 96-channel reflection data have been acquired. On the seismic section, BSR with strong reflectivity and negative polarity has been found at 700 ms below the sea bottom. BSR is considered as the base of gas hydrates and AVO analysis was performed to study physical properties along BSR. True amplitude recovery and surface consistence amplitude were applied to seismic data and angle gathers were obtained. AVO gradient and AVO intercept are calculated on every CDP gather. Section of AVO intercept show strong reflectivity and negative polarity on BSRs and stronger continuity of BSR than stacked section. Cross plot of intercept-gradient indicates that the lower layer below BSR is filled with free gas.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.167-180
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• 2010

The geochemical studies on the plutonic rocks of the Geochang, the central part of the Ryongnam massif, were carried out in order to constrain the petrogenesis and the paleotectonic environment. The objects of this study are dioritic rocks, biotite granite and hornblende granite. The modal compositions indicate that the dioritic rocks are quartz diorite, quartz monzodiorite, tonalite, biotite granites are granodiorite, granite and hornblende granites are granite, quartz monzonite, quartz syenite. These rocks belong to the calc-alkaline series. Especially, trace elements such as Sr, Nb, Sr, Ti are depleted, suggesting that these rocks are produced in the subduction zone related to calc-alkaline series. Also, the studied granitic rocks correspond to peraluminous and I-type. Chondrite-normalized REE patterns show that LREE are enriched much more than HREE, and have weak Eu(-) anomaly. It is similar to pattern of Jurassic granitoids in the South Korea. Total REE value of the biotite granite and hornblende granite ranges 76.21~137.05 ppm and 73.84~483.21 ppm, respectively, also $(La/Lu)_{CN}$ value ranges 9.61~36.47 and 7.17~21.85. It is suggest that studied rocks suppor their emplacement at active continental margin. Also, these rocks are derived from magma generated by partial melting of lower continental crust materials.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.123-154
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• 1982

Petrochemical, K-Ar dating, Sand Rb/Sr isotopes, metallogenic zoning, paleomagnetic and geotectonic studies of the Gyongsang basin were carried out to examine applicability of plate tectonics to the post-late Cretaceous igneous activity and metallogeny in the southeastern part of Korean Peninsula. The results obtained are as follows: 1. Bulgugsa granitic rocks range from granite to adamellite, whose Q-Ab-Or triangular diagram indicates that the depth and pressure at which the magma consolidated increase from coast to inland varying from 6 km, 0.5-3.3 kb in the coastal area to 17 km, 0.5-10 kb in the inland area. 2. The volcanic rocks in Gyongsang basin range from andesitic to basaltic rocks, and the basaltic rocks are generally tholeiitic in the coastal area and alkali basalt in the inland area. 3. The volcanic rocks of the area have the initial ratio of Sr^{87}/Sr^{86} varying from 0.706 to 0.707 which suggests a continental origin; the ratio of Rb/Sr changing from 0.079-0.157 in the coastal area to 0.021-0.034 in the inland area suggests that the volcanism is getting younger toward coastal side, which may indicate a retreat in stage of differentiation if they were derived from a same magma. The K_2O/SiO_2 (60%) increases from about 1.0 in the coastal area to about 3.0 in the inland area, which may suggest an increase indepth of the Benioff zone, if existed, toward inland side. 4. The K-Ar ages of volcanic rocks were measured to be 79.4 m.y. near Daegu, and 61.7 m.y. near Busan indicating a southeastward decrease in age. The ages of plutonic rocks also decrease toward the same direction with 73 m.y. near Daegu, and 58 m.y. near Busan, so that the volcanism predated the plutonism by 6 m.y. in the continental interior and 4 m.y. along the coast. Such igneous activities provide a positive evidence for an applicability of plate tectonics to this area. 5. Sulfur isotope analyses of sulfide minerals from 8 mines revealed that these deposits were genetically connected with the spacially associated ingeous rocks showing relatively narrow range of ${\delta}^{34}S$ values (-0.9‰ to +7.5‰ except for +13.3 from Mulgum Mine). A sequence of metallogenic zones from the coast to the inland is delineated to be in the order of Fe-Cu zone, Cu-Pb-Zn zone, and W-Mo zone. A few porphyry type copper deposits are found in the Fe-Cu zone. These two facts enable the sequence to be comparable with that of Andean type in South America. 6. The VGP's of Cretaceous and post Cretaceous rocks from Korea are located near the ones($71^{\circ}N$, $180^{\circ}E$ and $90^{\circ}N$, $110^{\circ}E$) obtained from continents of northern hemisphere. This suggests that the Korean peninsula has been stable tectonically since Cretaceous, belonging to the Eurasian continent. 7. Different polar wandering path between Korean peninsula and Japanese islands delineates that there has been some relative movement between them. 8. The variational feature of declination of NRM toward northwestern inland side from southeastern extremity of Korean peninsula suggests that the age of rocks becomes older toward inland side. 9. The geological structure(mainly faults) and trends of lineaments interpreted from the Landsat imagery reveal that NNE-, NWW- and NEE-trends are predominant in the decreasing order of intensity. 10. The NNE-trending structures were originated by tensional and/or compressional forces, the directions of which were parallel and perpendicular respectively to the subduction boundary of the Kula plate during about 90 m.y. B.P. The NWW-trending structures were originated as shear fractures by the same compressional forces. The NEE-trending structures are considered to be priginated as tension fractures parallel to the subduction boundary of the Kula plate during about 70 m.y. B.P. when Japanese islands had drifted toward southeast leaving the Sea of Japan behind. It was clearly demonstrated by many authors that the drifting of Japanese islands was accompanied with a rotational movement of a clock-wise direction, so that it is inferred that subduction boundary had changed from NNE- to NEE-direction. A number of facts and features mentioned above provide a suite of positive evidences enabling application of plate tectonics to the late Cretaceous-early Tertiary igneous activity and metallogeny in the area. Synthesizing these facts, an arc-trench system of continental margin-type is adopted by reconstructing paleogeographic models for the evolution of Korean peninsula and Japan islands. The models involve an extention mechanism behind the are(proto-Japan), by which proto-Japan as of northeastern continuation of Gyongsang zone has been drifted rotationally toward southeast. The zone of igneous activity has also been migrated from the inland in late-Cretaceous to the peninsula margin and southwestern Japan in Tertiary.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.463-471
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• 2018

In this paper, we review previous studies on the relative sea-level changes in the Yellow Sea during the Holocene to comprehensive understand the various research results. Currently, it is reported two theories : 1) the Holocene sea-level has never been higher than the present-day level; and 2) sea-level have reached highstand during mid-Holocene, followed by slow lowering to that of the present. The first theory yields a curve that is similar to a climate-change-related eustatic sea-level curve. However, in reality, most of the relative sea-level fluctuation resulted from land uplift or subsidence. The second theory yields a curve that is fairly coincident with a relative sea-level curve indicative of continental margins being located away from the ice sheets(i.e., far-field), and is considered as an effect of GIA(Glacio Isostatic Adjustment) and gravitational attraction. Based on detailed review of previous researches, we realized that they sourced the same papers, but obtained different results because they selectively chose and added the data. The data used to derive the second theory pertain to the northern Gunsan region, which is located within the western area of the Chugaryeong fault. Thus, we believe that the sea-level curve for the second theory is only representative of the area north of Gunsan, which is subject to GIA and tectonic deformation. Although the relative sea-level curve for the west coastal area is comparable to that for the far-field continental margin region, it is necessary to evaluate local tectonic activities as suggested by active seismicity in the west coastal area and the more than 400 faults currently existing in on the Korean Peninsula.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.41-48
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• 2012

A theoretical $CO_2$ storage capacity is estimated on the southwestern continental shelf margin of Ulleung Basin, offshore Korea using 2D/3D multi-channel seismic and wellbore data acquired in the area over the two decades since the late 1980s. For the first time in Korea, the present study applies an efficiency factor to the capacity calculation, together with the other required parameters. For possible $CO_2$ storage volume estimation of the study area, we interpreted the seismic data in the Gorae area from 800 m to 3,000 m below the seafloor integrated with the well data, and identified five different seismic units; the limited depth interval is considered because of fluid state of $CO_2$ and tightness of the formation. The total volumes of each seismic unit were converted with a time-depth relation inferred from the checkshot surveys before the other required parameters including porosity and density were applied to compute the potential storage capacity. The accumulated possible storage volume from the five depositional units in the study area is estimated to be approximately 5,100 Mton ($P_{50}$). The approaches made in this study will be applied to the rest area of the basin and other continental shelves (i.e., Yellow Sea and northern part of East China Sea) in the next phase.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.57-65
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• 2009

Selection of good mineralized area is a combination of the integration of all the available geo-scientific (i.e., geological, geochemical, and geophysical) information, extrapolation of likely features from known mineralized terrenes and the ability to be predictive. The time-space relationships of the hydrothermal deposits in the East Asia are closely related to the changing plate motions. Also, two distinctive hydrothermal systems during Mesozoic occurred in Korea: the Jurassic/Early Cretaceous deep-level ones during the Daebo orogeny and the Late Cretaceous/Tertiary shallow geothermal ones during the Bulguksa event. Both the Mesozoic geothermal system and the mineralization document a close spatial and temporal relationship with syn- to post-tectonic magmatism. The Jurassic mineral deposits were formed at the relatively high temperature and deep-crustal level from the mineralizing fluids characterized by the relatively homogeneous and similar ranges of ${\delta}^{18}O$ values, suggesting that ore-forming fluids were principally derived from spatially associated Jurassic granitoid and related pegmatite. Most of the Jurassic auriferous deposits (ca. 165-145 Ma) show fluid characteristics typical of an orogenic-type gold deposits, and were probably generated in a compressional to transpressional regime caused by an orthogonal to oblique convergence of the Izanagi Plate into the East Asian continental margin. On the other hand, Late Cretaceous ferroalloy, base-metal and precious-metal deposits in the Taebaeksan, Okcheon and Gyeongsang basins occurred as vein, replacement, breccia-pipe, porphyry-style and skarn deposits. Diverse mineralization styles represent a spatial and temporal distinction between the proximal environment of sub-volcanic activity and the distal to transitional condition derived from volcanic environments. However, Cu (-Au) or Fe-Mo-W deposits are proximal to a magmatic source, whereas polymetallic or precious-metal deposits are more distal to transitional. Strike-slip faults and caldera-related fractures together with sub-volcanic activity are associated with major faults reactivated by a northward (oblique) to northwestward (orthogonal) convergence, and have played an important role in the formation of the Cretaceous Au-Ag lode deposits (ca. 110-45 Ma) under a continental arc setting. The temporal and spatial distinctions between the two typical Mesozoic deposit styles in Korea reflect a different thermal episodes (i.e., late orogenic and post-orogenic) and ore-forming fluids related to different depths of emplacement of magma (i.e., plutonic and sub-volcanic) due to regional changes in tectonic settings.