• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.517-532
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• 2014

The Munamdong Formation is a small scale sedimentary deposit which is located in Yuljeonri, Naemyeon, Hongcheon Gangwon-do. In order to understand the depositional environment and its sequential change in the formation, sedimentary facies analysis was conducted. The result indicates that the Munamdong Formation began to be deposited in alluvial fan system accompanying volcanic activity and gradually deposited in lake system. As well, U-Pb, K-Ar and $^{40}Ar/^{39}Ar$ ages are determined from the Munamdong Formation. The SHRIMP U-Pb Phanerozoic Eon age of the detrital zircons in the middle part of the Munamdong formation yields $229.8{\pm}2.5Ma$. The K-Ar and $^{40}Ar/^{39}Ar$ ages of the volcanic rock in the lowermost part of the Munamdong formation are $203.7{\pm}3.9Ma$ and $227.4{\pm}8.4Ma$ respectively. These results confirm that the Munamdong Formation was deposited during the Late Triassic, indicating that the basin might be formed due to post-collisional rifting or collapsing.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.296-306
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• 1998

Ongoing huge Bakun Hydropower project is including the construction of a 210 m height hydroelectric rockfill dam with an installed capacity of 2,520 MW and a power transmission system connecting to the existing networks between Sarawak and peninsula Malaysia. In order to allow the main dam construction during the dry season, the Ballui river will have to be detoured through 3 concrete lined diversion tunnels with an internal diameter of 12 m and a length of 1,400 m each. The geology of Bakun site belongs to the several thousand meters thick Belaga formation deposited from the late Cteteceous to the early Teriary in the Northwest Borneo geosyncline. The orientation of the bedding plane, strike at N55$^{\circ}$E to N70$^{\circ}$E and dip at 50$^{\circ}$SE to 70$^{\circ}$SE, is developed uniformly in Bakun sedimentary rocks. Rock mechanical characteristics of Bakun site have been classified into 4 rock mass types(RMT) depending on the degree of weathering and the occurrence of rock jointing with RMR. Graywacke(Sandstone) as well as Shale can take place together in the same rock mass type if their rock mass properties are similar. It was summarized the rock support type and support system design of underground diversion tunnels in view of rock mechanics.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.173-186
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• 2013

The purpose of the study was to investigate the change of students' conceptual structures about sedimentary rocks through the field trip. A semantic network analysis method was utilized to assess the change. An open-ended questionnaire was developed to assess high school students' knowledge of sedimentary rock including its definition, classification, formation process, and characteristics. Fifteen high school students participated in the field trip of this study. The text data were analyzed using the semantic network analysis method. Results are as follows. First, high school students' conceptual structures about sedimentary rocks were more expanded after the field trip. Second, students' conceptual structures formed a 'small world network' by combining the sub-clusters. Third, the size of students' conceptual structures was decreased after a few month of field trip. Nonetheless, the connection among the clusters remained the same.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.113-119
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• 1971

The Daeheung Dolomite Mine, which is about 6km south of Danyang, Chungcheongbugdo, is coincided with almost central portion of the Danyang quardrangle scaled in 1 : 50,000. The purpose of this report is to prepare a information for the economic evaluation on the mine. Geology of the region is composed of worm-eaten limestone, crystalline limestone, crystalline dolomite rock, sandstone and shale from bottom, those are applicable to socalled Dumugol and Maggol formation of Ordovician, and batholithic biotite granite is intruded the west-side of the ditto sedimentary rocks. The dolomite bed, emplaced in bottom of the upper limestone formation, so-called Maggol formation, is about 270m in thickness, and dips $30^{\circ}{\sim}50^{\circ}$ northwest. The facies of the dolomite rock contained many brucite crystals is not only coarse-grained crystalline, but also micro crystalline in contact metasomatic parts. 25 samples were taken from the two series, A and B, in the nearly crossed direction to the strike of the dolomite bed as shown in the geological map. They were chemically analysed on the components of MgO, CaO, and $SiO_2$ as shown in Table 2. The estimate ore reserves total some 107,200,000 metric tons above the 320m level with the following average contents: MgO 21.80%, CaO 29.27% and $SiO_2$ 0.64%. It is caused by brucite minerals that MaO content in the dolomite rock is higher than pure dolomite (21.7%). The dolomite ore is possible in use for magnesian fertilizer, magnesian cement and refractory material, especially the microcrystalline dolomite ore is useful for a refractory material in furnaces of iron industries.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.426-446
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to analyze undergraduate students' reasoning for solving a problem about a rock and investigate the roles and importance of critical evidence (CE) and critical resource models (CRMs) in abductive reasoning. Participants were 20 senior undergraduate students enrolled in a science major course in a university of education. They were asked to abductively infer geologic processes of sedimentary rocks having a lot of holes and represent them with models. Their reasoning were analyzed according to a scheme for modeling-based abductive reasoning. As a result, successful student reasoning was characterized by using a diversity of grains and lots of holes as CE, activating the sedimentary rock formation and weathering as CRMs, and combining the CRMs into a scientifically sound explanatory model (SSEM). By contrast, in the reasoning unsuccessful in proposing a SSEM, students activated the igneous rock (basalt) formation and deposition as resource models (RMs) based on the evidence of the holes in the rocks and diverse grains, respectively, and used the RMs to construct their own explanatory models (EMs). It was suggested that to construct SSEMs to solve earth scientific problems about rocks, students need to know what could be CE in a particular problem situation, take an integrative or systemic approach to a rock problem, use multiple RMs, and evaluate RMs or EMs in light of evidence.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.365-380
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• 2021

This study aimed to explore the characteristics of scientific observation and reasoning of gifted middle-school students in rock identification. Five rock samples that are considered important as per science textbooks, including igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks, were provided to 19 first-year middle-school students attending a gifted education center. Students were asked to infer the formation process, type, and name of each rock. The results showed that the characteristics of rocks that students primarily paid attention to included color, texture, and structure. Students immediately succeeded in identifying common rocks based on memory; however, meaningful inferences were not made. In case of rocks that students faced difficulty discriminating, significant reasoning processes were revealed through discourse. In addition, although scientific reasoning was properly constructed based on meaningful observations, there were cases wherein rock identification failed. These results will contribute to determining the current level of understanding of middle-school students in rock identification activities and finding ways to provide students with meaningful scientific observation and inference experiences through rock identification in the school field.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.387-396
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• 2024

The geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) involves permanently isolating the wastes in stable geological formations deep underground. Mudstone (siltstone and claystone) containing abundant clay minerals is proposed as a host rock for geological disposal of HLW because clay minerals have low permeability and high ion sorption/exchange capacity. Despite the widespread occurrence of sedimentary basins in Korea, there is a lack of evaluation of mudstone as host rocks for geological disposal. In this study, we utilized the JBH-1 borehole (7-754 m) obtained from the Jinju Formation to investigate the distribution trend and mineral compositions of mudstone. Additionally, we conducted comparative analyses with the Opalinus Clay in Switzerland considered as host rock of geological disposal of HLW. Claystone containing more than 40% clay minerals exhibit thick layers primarily in the upper section (7-350 m) of the JBH-1 borehole. While the clay minerals content of claystone does not show significant variation with depth, there are differences in the characteristics of feldspar and carbonate minerals. These mineralogical variations can led change in pore water chemistry and rock mechanical properties. The clay minerals content of claystone in the Jinju Formation is similar to that of the Opalinus Clay. However, there are notable differences in clay minerals composition. While the Opalinus Clay contains smectite-illite mixed-layer minerals, the Jinju Formation are dominated by illite indicating higher burial temperatures. This information will be useful for studying the host rock of HLW geological disposal site in Korea.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.304-315
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• 2016

In this study, the current horizontal stress characteristics of the Tertiary rock formations in the Pohang Basin are investigated on the basis of the in-situ rock stress measurements at depths from 75 m to 716 m of the 3 test boreholes in the Doumsan area, Pohang. The deep hydraulic fracturing stress measurement results indicated that the horizontal stress components in the test site appear far lower than the average ones by the linear fit for the data set measured from the other domestic sites. But, borehole scanning revealed clearly that lots of small and large scale borehole failures occurred due to the low strength characteristics of the existing rocks. To obtain more accurate and overall information on the horizontal stress direction, the integrated analysis combining the hydraulic fracturing stress measurement and borehole scanning data set were additionally carried out. The analysis results showed that in the upper sedimentary and the lower volcanic rock formation, the dominant orientations of the current maximum horizontal stress components were appeared in the range of $80^{\circ}{\sim}100^{\circ}$ (N80E~N80W) and $120^{\circ}{\sim}140^{\circ}$ (N60W~N40W), respectively. From this study result it was found that the maximum horizontal stress directions have a tendency to rotate in a clockwise direction as the rock formation changes with depth in the test site.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.65-80
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• 1994

The Tertiary $Ch{\check{o}}ngja$ basin is located in the southeastern coastal area of the Korean Peninsula. It is a lozenge shaped fault-bounded basin with circa $5{\times}5km$ areal extent, isolated from other Tertiary basins by the Cretaceous Ulsan Formation in-between. The northwestern boundary of the basin is a domino/listric type normal fault trending $N30^{\circ}E$, whereas its southwestern boundary is a dextral strike-slip fault (trending $N20^{\circ}W$) with a lateral offset of more than 1 km. The basin is bounded by the East Sea on the eastern margin. Basin-fills consist of extrusive volcanic rock (Tangsa Andesites) of Early Miocene (16~22 Ma in radiometric age), unconsolidated fluviatile conglomerate (Kangdong Formation) and shallow brackish-water sandstone ($Sinhy{\check{o}}n$ Formation). The latter yields abundant Vicarya-Anadara molluscan fossils of early Middle Miocene age. The Tertiary strata become younger toward the northwestern boundary-fault of the basin, showing a zonal distribution pattern parallel to the fault: the younger sedimentary formations occupy a narrow zone of 2 km width along the northwestern boundary-fault, whereas the older Tangsa Andesites underlie them unconformably in the eastern and southeastern portions of the basin. The strata in the basin, including the Tangsa Andesites, are tilted (about $20^{\circ}$) toward the northwestern boundary-fault Sedimentary strata thicken toward the boundary-fault, forming a wedge shaped half-graben structure. A number of small-scale syndepositional normal growth faults and graben structures are observed in the sedimentary strata. These extensional structures have the same trend as the normal northwestern boundary-fault which we interpret as a pull-apart detachment fault. These characteristics imply persistent extension during the basin evolution, caused by a NW-SE directed tensional force. The $Ch{\check{o}}ngja$ basin is, thus, a kind of syndepositional tectonic basin evolved in a strike-slip (pull-apart) regime. The latter was caused by a dextral simple shear associated with the NNW-SSE opening of the East Sea. In view of the fact that the normal growth faults do not cut through the uppermost portion of the youngest $Sinhy{\check{o}}n$ Formation, it is inferred that the tensional force came to be inactive in the early Middle Miocene. This is coincident in timing with the termination of the East Sea opening (15 Ma).

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.537-546
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• 2020

Oil and natural gas reserves have been recognised abundantly in clayey rich rock formations in deep costal reservoirs. It is necessary to understand the sedimentary history of those reservoir rocks to well explore these natural resources. This work designs a group of laboratory experiments to mimic the physical process of the sedimentary clay-rich rock formation. It presents characterisation results of the physical properties of the artificial clayey rocks synthesized from illite clay, quartz sand and brine water by high-pressure consolidation tests. Special focus is given on the effects of illite clay content and high-stress consolidation on the physical properties. Multi-step loaded consolidation experiments were carried out with stress up to 35 MPa on mixtures constituting of the illite clay, quartz sand and brine water with five initial illite clay contents (w=85%, 70%, 55%, 40% and 25%). Compressibility and void ratio were characterised throughout the physical compaction process of the mixtures constituting of five illite clay contents and their water permeability was measured as well. Results show that the applied stress induces a great reduction of clayey rock void ratio. Illite clay contents has a significant influence on the compressibility, void ratio and the permeability of the physically synthesized clayey rocks. There is a critical illite clay content w=70% that induces the minimum void ratio in the physically synthesised clayey rocks. The SEM study indicates, in the high-pressure synthesised clayey rocks with high illite clay contents, the illite clay minerals are located in layers and serve as the material matrix, and the quartz minerals fill in the inter-mineral pores or are embedded in the illite clay matrix. The arrangements of the minerals in microscale originate the structural anisotropy of the high-pressure synthesised clayey rock. The test findings can give an intuitive physical understanding of the deep-buried clayey rock basins in energy reservoirs.