Precambrian crustal evolution in Rangrim Massif , Korean Peninsula

Petrological, chronological and geotectonic geological analysis of Precambrian metamorphic rock in Korean Peninsula shows that the remnants ( > 314 Ga) of continental nuclei crust were formed in the Paleo-archean in the Rangrim Massif. In the massif, the main formation ages of continental crust range from 3.2 Ga to 2.5 Ga, its important growing period was 2.8 - 2.5 Ga. The subsequent expansion period of the Rangrim Massif was 2.4 - 2.2 Ga. The division events occurred in 1.85 Ga and in the Late Paleoproterozoic－Early Mesoproterozoic, respectively. Since then the massif was relatively stable. However, the last division of the Rangrim Massif occurred at 793 Ma.     

Validation of Sea Level Data in the East Asian Marginal Seas： Comparison between TOPEX／POSEIDON Altimeter and In-Situ Tide Gauges

In an effort to assess the reliability of satellite altimeter systems, the authors conduct a comparative analysis of sea level data that were collected from the TOPEX/POSEIDON (T/P) altimeter and 10 tide gauges (TG) near the satellite passing ground tracks. The analysis is made using datasets collected from marginal sea regions surrounding the Korean Peninsula at T/P cycles of 2 to 230, which correspond to October 1992 to December 1998. Proper treatment of tidal errors is a very critical step in data processing because the study area has very strong tide. When the T/P data are processed, the procedures of Park and Gamberoni (1995) are adapted to reduce errors associated with the tide. When the T/P data are processed in this way, the alias periods of M2, $2, and K1 constituents are found to be 62.1, 58.7, and 173 days repectively. The compatibility of the T/P and TG datasets are examined at various filtering periods.The results indicate that the low-frequency signals of the T/P data can be interpreted more safely with longer filtering periods (such as up to the maximum selected value of 200 days). When RMS errors for the 200-day low-pass filter period are compared with all 10 tidal stations, the values span the range of 2.8 to 6.7 cm. The results of a correlation analysis for this filtering period also show a strong agreement between the T/P and TG datasets across all stations investigated (e.g., p-values consistently less than 0.001). Hence according to the analysis, the conclusion is made that the analysis of surface sea level using satellite altimeter data can be made safely with reasonably extended filtering periods such as 200 days.     

Cambrian Reefs in the Western North China Platform, Wuhai, Inner Mongolia

Mid to late Cambrian thrombolites and maze-like maceriate reefs from the western North China Platform, Wuhai, Inner Mongolia, northwestern China, occur in the middle of a succession dominated by thin-bedded lime mudstone-shale/marlstone alternations, and are laterally surrounded by limestone conglomerate and/or grainstone. Thrombolite, characterized by meter-scale lenticular mounds composed of millimeter- to centimeter-scale mesoclots and wackestone matrix, occurs in the lower middle part of the sequence. Thrombolite mesoclots are composed of microstromatolites with alternating dark gray and light gray micritic laminae. The maze-like maceriate reefs occur in the middle to the upper part of the sequence, commonly forming lenticular mounds up to 1 m thick. They are characterized by centimeter- to decimeter-scale branched maze-like structures, whose biogenic portions (maceria) are selectively dolomitized. The maceriae are composed of poorly preserved microstromatolites and siliceous sponges. Inter-macerial sediments consist of lime mud and scattered bioclasts. These Wuhai reefs are generally similar to but older than various other Cambrian reefs previously reported from the Shandong region, northeastern China.     

Beta Gyres in Global Analysis Fields

A three-component decomposition is applied to global analysis data to show the existence of a beta gyre, which causes Tropical Cyclone (TC) to drift from a large-scale environmental steering current. Analyses from the Global Data Assimilation and Prediction System (GDAPS) of the Korea Meteorological Adminis-tration (KMA), the Global Forecast System (GFS) of NCEP, and the Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System (NOGAPS) are used in this study. The structure of the beta gyre obtained in our anal...     

EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF FPS SYSTEM IN BRIDGE SEISMIC ISOLATION

An experimental study of a seismically isolated and a comparable non-isolated bridge is presented. The bridge model featured flexible piers, weighed 158kN and was tested on a shake table with an array of real and simulated seismic motions with peak acceleration in the range 0⋅1–1⋅1g. When isolated, the bridge deck was supported by four spherically shaped sliding bearings (known as Friction Pendulum System or FPS bearings) with friction coefficient under dynamic conditions in the range 0⋅07–0⋅12. The experimental results demonstrated a substantial improvement in the ability of the isolated bridge to sustain all levels of seismic excitation under elastic conditions.     

Sensitivity of Snowfall Characteristics to Meteorological Conditions in the Yeongdong Region of Korea

This study investigates the characteristics of cold clouds and snowfall in both the Yeongdong coastal and mountainous regions under different meteorological conditions based on the integration of numerical modeling and three-hourly rawinsonde observations with snow crystal photographs for a snowfall event that occurred on 29?30 January 2016.We found that rimed particles predominantly observed turned into dendrite particles in the latter period of the episode when the 850 hPa temperature decreased at the coastal site,whereas the snow crystal habits at the mountainous site were largely needle or rimed needle.Rawinsonde soundings showed a well-defined,two-layered cloud structure along with distinctive wind-directional shear,and an inversion in the equivalent potential temperature above the low-level cloud layer.The first experiment with a decrease in lower-layer temperature showed that the low-level cloud thickness was reduced to less than 1.5 km,and the accumulated precipitation was decreased by 87%compared with the control experiment.The difference in precipitation amount between the single-layered experiment and control experiment(two-layered)was not so significant to attribute it to the effect of the seeder?feeder mechanism.The precipitation in the last experiment by weakening winddirectional shear was increased by 1.4 times greater than the control experiment specifically at the coastal site,with graupel particles accounting for the highest proportion(~62%).The current results would improve snowfall forecasts in complicated geographical environments such as Yeongdong in terms of snow crystal habit as well as snowfall amount in both time and space domains.     

Correlation assessment and monitoring of the potential pollutants in the surface sediments of Pyeongchang River, Korea

The study provides a baseline for the assessment of the organic and inorganic pollution specially, heavy metal contamination in the surface sediments of Pyeongchang River,South Korea.The assessment of the study areas was done with respect to metal pollution load,ecological risk and geoaccumulated risk.Based upon the used indices,a priority index(P_index) was used to rank the utmost contaminated sites.Though the concentrations of mercury in all sediments were below the guideline, the significant enriched contamination was observed by all applied indices.As expected,the values of pollution load index（PLI）,ecological risk index（RI） and geoaccumulation risk index(I_geo) demonstrated lower heavy metal contamination in upstream areas compared to the downstream. Admittedly,sediments were unpolluted to slightly-polluted according to PLI while high to extremely high ecological risks were observed in several sediment samples.Furthermore,all the samples were uncontaminated as per I_geo.After simplification of I_geo,the P_index,showed the utmost contaminated sediments with a value of 2.537.Notably,protective measures should be taken to the highly contaminated areas which are prioritized by P_index Admittedly,the maximum concentrations of total organic carbon,total nitrogen,inorganic nitrogen,total phosphorous,inorganic phosphorous,calcium, magnesium,sodium and potassium were significantly observed as 7.8×10⁴,3,185,36,1,032,3.7, 1,5163,2,881,669 and 4,076mg/kg accordingly.     

Variability of the Dokdo Abyssal Current observed in the Ulleung Interplain Gap of the East/Japan Sea

Subinertial fluctuation of a strong northward deep current, which is referred to the Dokdo Abyssal Current (DAC) by Chang et al. (2009), is investigated from current records for about 16.5 and 8.0 months in the Ulleung Interplain Gap of the East/Japan Sea. The current below 300 m is bottom-intensified and has nearly depth-independent flow. Near bottom, the spectral peaks of the current were found near 10, 20, and 60 d. The DAC variability near 10 d and 20 d is reasonably consistent with the linear theory of topographic Rossby waves (TRWs) in the following aspects: (1) The motion is columnar and bottom-intensified; (2) the theoretical cutoff frequency is similar to the observation; (3) The observation-based angles of the wavenumber vector are in good agreement with the theoretical ones. The wavelengths of the TRWs with periods of near 10 d and 20 d near Dokdo are significantly shorter than those with similar timescales in the open oceans (100-250 km). It is primarily due to the weak stratification below 300 m in the East Sea. The deep current fluctuations with periods of near 10 d and 20 d were accompanied by warm events in the upper layer resulting from eddying processes and/or meandering of the Tsushima Warm Current.     

Variability and Risk Analysis of Hong Kong Air Quality Based on Monsoon and El Nino Conditions

This study presents an exploratory analysis aimed at improving understanding of the variability of Hong Kong air quality associated with different climate conditions. Significantly negative correlations were found when Nino 3 led particulate matter ≤10 μm PM₁₀) and NO₂ by 2--3 months over the Hong Kong territory, while the other pollutants (e.g., O₃, SO₂) showed modest correlations. A significant decreasing trend in visibility was observed during the autumn and winter, which has potential implications for the air-quality degradation and the endangerment of human health in Hong Kong. In an El Nino summer, the visibility was relatively better, while visibility in other seasons was diminished. On the other hand, in La Nina events, significant changes occurred in visibility in winter and autumn. Air pollution indices were less sensitive to the South China Summer Monsoon (SCSM), but a relatively high correlation existed between the East Asian Winter Monsoon (EAWM) and air pollutants. Rainfall was lower during most of the strong EAWM years compared to the weak years. This result suggests that the pollutants that accumulate in Hong Kong are not easy to wash out, so concentrations remain at a higher level. Finally, based on the conditional Air Pollution Index (API) risk assessment, site-specific vulnerabilities were analyzed to facilitate the development of the air-quality warning systems in Hong Kong.     

Interaction of Streamwise and Wall-Normal Velocities in Combined Wave-Current Motion

The aim of this paper is to present an analytical expression for the streamwise velocity distribution in a non-uniform flow in the presence of waves; the correlation between the horizontal and vertical velocity components has been compreheusively examined. Different from previous researches which attributed the deviation of velocity from the classical log-law to the wave Reynolds stress, i.e. - ρ uv^- only, this study demonstrates that the momentum flux caused by mean velocities, i.e., u^- and v^-, is also responsible for the velocity deviation, and it is found that the streamwise velocity for a flow in the presence of non-zero wall-normal velocity does not follow the classical log-law, but the modified log-law proposed in this study based on simplified mixing-length theorem. The validity of the modified log-law has been verified by use of available experimental data from published sources for combined wave-current flows, and good agreement between the predicted and observed velocity profiles has been achieved.