• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.145-151
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• 1992

In order to study the optimum depth for the soil geochemical exploration in the area which is affected by agricultural activities and waste disposal of metal mine, the soil samples were sampled from the B layer of residual soil and vertical 7 layers up to 250 cm in the rice field and 3 layers up to 90 cm in the ordinary field. They were analyzed for Au, As, Cu, Pb and Zn by AAS, AAS-graphite furnace and ICP. To investigate the proper depth for the soil sampling in the contaminated area, the data were treated statistically by applying correlation coefficient, factor analysis and trend analysis. It is conclude that soil geochemical exploration method could be applied in the farm-land and a little contaminated area. The optimum depth of soil sampling is 60 cm in the ordinary field, and 150~200 cm in the rice field. Soil sampling in the area of a huge mine waste disposal is not recommendable. Plotting of geochemical map with factor scores as a input data shows a clear pattern compared with the map of indicater element such as As or Au. The second or third degree trend surface analysis is effective in inferring the continuity of vein in the area where the outcrop is invisible.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.339-352
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• 2022

As environmental criteria items are increased or strengthened, cases of heavy metal contamination by geogenic origin are increasing, and the need to distinguish between natural and anthropogenic origins in soil or groundwater exceeding the standard is increasing. In this study, geochemical occurrences of geogenic heavy metals were identified through statistical processing of the national geochemical map data and evaluation of geochemical characteristics of regions with high geoaccumulation indices. Cobalt, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, V, and Zn were targeted for which the national geochemical maps were prepared, and Co, Cr, Ni, and V derived from ultrabasic or ultramafic rocks were classified as factor 1. Copper, Pb and Zn of non-ferrous sulfide origin were classified as factor 2. In particular, enrichment of heavy metals by factor 1 occurs mainly in the serpentine distribution areas of the Chungcheong region, and there is a risk of contamination in neighboring areas. In the case of factor 2, geogenic occurrence is concerned not only in non-ferrous metal mineralization areas such as Taebacksan and Gyeongnam mineralization zones, but also in Au-Ag mineralization areas distributed nationwide.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.38 no.6 s.175
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• pp.663-673
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• 2005

This study investigates the relationship between the geochemical maps and the gold-silver deposit locations. Geochemical maps of 21 elements, which are published by KIGAM, locations of gold-silver deposits, and 1:1,000,000 scale geological map of Korea are utilized far this investigation. Pixel size of the basic geochemical maps is 250m and these data are resampled in 1km spacing for the statistical analyses. Relationship between the mine location and the geochemical data are investigated using bayesian statistics and decision tree algorithms. For the bayesian statistics, each geochemical maps are reclassified by percentile divisions which divides the data by 5, 25, 50, 75, 95, and $100\%$ data groups. Number of mine locations in these divisions are counted and the probabilities are calculated. Posterior probabilities of each pixel are calculated using the probability of 21 geochemical maps and the geological map. A prediction map of the mining locations is made by plotting the posterior probability. The input parameters for the decision tree construction are 21 geochemical elements and lithology, and the output parameters are 5 types of mines (Ag/Au, Cu, Fe, Pb/Zn, W) and absence of the mine. The locations for the absence of the mine are selected by resampling the overall area by 1 km spacing and eliminating my resampled points, which is in 750m distance from mine locations. A prediction map of each mine area is produced by applying the decision tree to every pixels. The prediction by Bayesian method is slightly better than the decision tree. However both prediction maps show reasonable match with the input mine locations. We interpret that such match indicate the rules produced by both methods are reasonable and therefore the geochemical data has strong relations with the mine locations. This implies that the geochemical rules could be used as background values oi mine locations, therefore could be used for evaluation of mine contamination. Bayesian statistics indicated that the probability of Au/Ag deposit increases as CaO, Cu, MgO, MnO, Pb and Li increases, and Zr decreases.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.215-233
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• 2000

The national geochemical baseline mapping project has been conducted since 1996 to establish a quantitative assessment system for geochemical hazards in natural environments. The geochemical image maps have been edited for thirty-six elements(i.e., 10 major oxides and 26 trace elements) in light sediments, finer fraction than 150 $\mu$m, collected from first- to second-order streams(totally 11,000) over five provinces in the western half(ca. 45,000 km$^2$) of Korea. Natural background values of the elements were given for different geological environments. Based on the statistics, geochemical baselines were newly obtained for a quantitative hazard assessment on toxicity of heavy metals and deficiency of essential nutrients. Some chosen examples of geochemical hazards are presented based on new geochemical image maps and related baseline data.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.137-147
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• 2002

Natural geological and environmental processes reflect to element abundances in geological materials on the surface. This study aims to elucidate a possibility of geostatistical application to differentiate geochemical anomalies affected by anthropogenic and geogenic factors. A regional geochemical map was produced using 'inverse distance weight interpolation' method for analytical results of stream sediments «150 11m) which were collected from 2,290 first- to second-order streams over the whole Gyeonggi Province. The Jurassic granitic batholith in the southeastern province was selected as a target for the geostatistical examination. Factor analysis was conducted using 22 elements for stream sediments from 445 drainage basins over the granitic body. Co, Cr, Sc, MgO, Fe$_{2}$O$_{3}$, V, and Ni were grouped with high correlation coefficients and the depletion of the components may reflect the whole-rock chemistry of the granite. Regression analysis was done using Co, Cr, and Sc as dependent variables and other six components as independent variables, and the results were drawn as maps. The maps acquired generally show quite similar distribution patterns with those of concentrations of each variable. The similarity in the spatial patterns between the two maps indicates that the application of regression statistics can be valid for the interpretation of regional geochemical data. However, some components show local discrepancies which may be influenced by secondary factors regardless of the basement lithology. The regression analysis may be effective in extracting local geochemical anomalies which may reflect rather anthropogenic pollutions than geogenic influences.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• v.2
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• pp.710-712
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• 2006

The aim of this study was to analyze limestone deposits potential using an artificial neural network and a Geographic Information System (GIS) environment to identify areas that have not been subjected to the same degree of exploration. For this, a variety of spatial geological data were compiled, evaluated and integrated to produce a map of potential deposits in the Gangreung area, Korea. A spatial database considering deposit, topographic, geologic, geophysical and geochemical data was constructed for the study area using a GIS. The factors relating to 44 limestone deposits were the geological data, geochemical data and geophysical data. These factors were used with an artificial neural network to analyze mineral potential. Each factor’s weight was determined by the back-propagation training method. Training area was applied to analyze and verify the effect of training. Then the mineral deposit potential indices were calculated using the trained back-propagation weights, and potential map was constructed from GIS data. The mineral potential map was then verified by comparison with the known mineral deposit areas. The verification result gave accuracy of 87.31% for training area.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.662-663
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• 2004

In general, mineral resources prospect is performed in several methods including geological survey, geological structure analysis, geochemical exploration, airborne geophysical exploration and remote sensing, but data collected through these methods are usually not integrated for analysis but used separately. Therefore we compared various data integration techniques and generated final mineral resources potentiality map.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.517-526
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• 2008

Geological and related thematic maps make various economical and social benefits at many sectors. Recently, development of information managing technology such as GIS, Geographic Information System, enlarges the usage of geological map and information. In this research, using the Analytic Hierarchy Process, we analyzed the weight of attributes which compose value of geological map and information. Results of research are as follows. By the analysis of the weight of attributes, we found that the weight of confidence, upper hierarchy attribute, was above 50%. The weight of convenience and additional effect was about $16%{\sim}30%$ in the geological map, geophysical map, geochemical map and hydrogeologic map. And the consumption of each maps will increase, especially in large scale map.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.576-578
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• 2003

Hyperspectral image divides VNIR region to over 200 bands which can show continuous spectrum with 10 nm spectral resolution. This property is useful in geology where a spectral feature which is decided by chemical compositions and crystalline structures is recorded well. While this field has been studied variously in foreign countries, the studies are in the early stage in Korea. In this study, characteristic materials associated with AMD were classified by using EO-1 HYPERION data which is a spaceborne hyperspectral image and topographical map and DEM and geochemical map were analyzed in conjunction with the image in order to examine that classified minerals are secondary minerals by AMD.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.737-760
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• 2022

For the geological disposal of high-level radioactive wastes (HLW), an understanding of deep subsurface environment is essential through geological, hydrogeological, geochemical, and geotechnical investigations. Although South Korea plans the geological disposal of HLW, only a few studies have been conducted for characterizing the geochemistry of deep subsurface environment. To guide the hydrogeochemical research for selecting suitable repository sites, this study overviewed the status and trends in hydrogeochemical characterization of deep groundwater for the deep geological disposal of HLW in developed countries. As a result of examining the selection process of geological disposal sites in 8 countries including USA, Canada, Finland, Sweden, France, Japan, Germany, and Switzerland, the following geochemical parameters were needed for the geochemical characterization of deep subsurface environment: major and minor elements and isotopes (e.g., ³⁴S and ¹⁸O of SO₄^2-, ¹³C and ¹⁴C of DIC, ²H and ¹⁸O of water) of both groundwater and pore water (in aquitard), fracture-filling minerals, organic materials, colloids, and oxidation-reduction indicators (e.g., Eh, Fe²⁺/Fe³⁺, H₂S/SO₄^2-, NH₄⁺/NO₃^-). A suitable repository was selected based on the integrated interpretation of these geochemical data from deep subsurface. In South Korea, hydrochemical types and evolutionary patterns of deep groundwater were identified using artificial neural networks (e.g., Self-Organizing Map), and the impact of shallow groundwater mixing was evaluated based on multivariate statistics (e.g., M3 modeling). The relationship between fracture-filling minerals and groundwater chemistry also has been investigated through a reaction-path modeling. However, these previous studies in South Korea had been conducted without some important geochemical data including isotopes, oxidationreduction indicators and DOC, mainly due to the lack of available data. Therefore, a detailed geochemical investigation is required over the country to collect these hydrochemical data to select a geological disposal site based on scientific evidence.