• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.261-272
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• 2014

Over the last three decades, advances in AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry) and Noble Gas Mass Spectrometer make various application of terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides (CNs) to wide range of earth surface sciences possible. Dating techniques can be divided into three sub-approaches: simple surface exposure dating, depth-profile dating, and burial dating, depending on the condition of targeted surfaces. In terms of Korean landscape view, CNs dating can be applied to fluvial and marine terrace, alluvial fan, tectonic landform (fault scarp and faulted surfaces), debris landforms such as rock fall, talus, block field and stream, lacustrine and marine wave-cut platform, cave deposits, Pliocene basin fill and archaeological sites. In addition, in terms of lithology, the previous limit to quartz-rich rocks such as granite and gneiss can be expanded to volcanic and carbonate rocks with the help of recent advances in CNs analysis in those rocks.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.165-183
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• 2015

It is well known that, since the 15th century, the amount of soil loss in our country due to change in land use by human has increased more rapidly than ever before. However we cannot answer the question 'How long can the soil persist under the current rates of soil loss?', because it was difficult to quantify the soil production rate. With the advancement of accelerated mass spectrometry, the attempt to quantify rate of soil production and derive soil production function succeeded, and recently it was also applied into the Daegwanryeong Plateau. Here we introduce the principles for quantifying soil production and deriving soil production function using terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides, and then compare the soil production rates from the plateau with soil loss data after the late 20th century, and finally estimate how long the soil can persist. Averaged soil production rate since the Holocene derived from the plateau is revealed as ${\sim}0.05[mm\;yr^{-1}]$, and, however, the recent soil loss rate of intensively used farmlands at the same region is up to sixty times greater than the soil production rate. Thus, if current land use system is maintained, top soils on the cultivated lands over hillslopes especially in upland areas are expected to disappear within several decades at the earliest.