Melanie's Blog

            South Korea has been experiencing significant coastal erosions due to many factors that are caused by humans such as large scale development and port construction but the coastal erosions are mostly due to natural causes such as sea level rise, typhoons, and storm surges. Because of these causes, many beaches in South Korea are at risk and could be worsening everyday. The government of Korea have been creating strategies for coastal management. Due to the erosions many businesses that were in the area had to relocate. In other spots on the beaches, steep dunes as high as 5 meters were forming, this poses as a safety risk for people and animals and also disrupted tourism. In 1999, a coast management act had failed to protect the shorelines in comparison to countries such as the U.S. and Japan where they had tighter measures.  Wolcheon beach located in Samcheok, Gangwon Province, South Korea is the main one to have suffered the most from...

Because of drastic climate change happening, it has impacted South Korea's climate in different ways such as in rising temperatures, hotter summers and shorter winters, intense rainfalls which lead to flooding, droughts and rising sea levels. But South Korea is most at risk for heavy rainfalls and typhoons, which eventually ends up causing more damage because the rainfalls and typhoons cause floods and landslides. Heavy rainfall occurs the most in the southern and southwestern regions and mountainous areas. In these areas rainfall range from 800-900 mm.  In 2020, South Korea faced heavy rainfall and flooded the city of Dajeon and overflowing Han river. Study says that it was the longest monsoon in over seven years and lasted up to 42 straight days of rain. In 2022, the city of Seoul faced there heaviest rain yet in over 115 years.  How South Korea plans to improve climate control is to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 40% and aims to be carbon neutral by the year 2050.  ht...

  According to the article "Mass Wasting" by the National Park Service it states " Mass wasting is the movement of rock and soil down slope under the influence of gravity. Rock falls, slumps, and debris flows are all examples of mass wasting. Often lubricated by rainfall or agitated by seismic activity, these events may occur very rapidly and move as a flow." Some events that can trigger a landslide include earthquakes, intense rain, rapid snowmelts, coastal erosion and volcanic eruptions.  As of 2017, South Korea has experienced over 1,728 landslide fatalities since 1970. The majority of mass wastes to occur in South Korea are usually caused by monsoon rainfall, underlying geological conditions and South Korea's steep topography. Heavy rainfall being the most common factor for landslides in South Korea and due to climate change causing these heavy rainfalls. The planning system of South Korea does not prevent construction such as houses, buildings, roads to be ...

     Throughout the land, including islands, of South Korea there are three holocene volcanoes. Hallasan , located on Jeju island, Ulleungdo, located in the East Sea and is an island volcano, and Seongsan Ilchulbong, also located on Jeju island. There is also a fourth volcano, Chugaryong , but that volcano is located between North and South Korea and not much information is said about that one and is also in a demilitarized zone.  The last volcanic eruption in South Korea was in 1007 CE and was caused by the Hallasan volcano on Jeju island. Ulleungdo volcano last erupted in 2990 BCE and Seongsan Ilchulbong is said to have last erupted between 5,000 to 6,000 years ago. The tallest volcano being Hallasan, reaching up to 6,398 ft and is considered a shield volcano. None of South Korea's volcanoes are currently active and don't create a risk for Koreans. https://volcano.si.edu/volcanolist_countries.cfm?country=South%20Korea# https://www.volcanocafe.org/korean-volcanics-...

Since South Korea is located in a less seismically active region earthquakes are not as common, but this doesn't mean that they are free from ever experiencing them. Despite being on the Eurasian plate South Korea is located far away from active plate boundaries which is able to reduce the regularity of earthquakes.  The second largest earthquake to happen in modern South Korea occurred in 2017 with a magnitude of 5.5 and happened in Pohang. The Pohang earthquake unfortunately injured 90 people and caused $52 million in damage. Pohang is known to be in an area where an earthquake may less likely occur. But the reason why the event happened wasn't exactly caused by nature itself. It was caused by the operations of an enhanced geothermal system project. Their plan was to harvest energy by injecting high-pressure water into the subsurface. Apparently, the high-pressure water injection activated a previously unknown fault line which led to the earthquake. The first largest earthqua...

The country of South Korea is located on the Eurasian plates, tectonic plates that cover parts in Europe and Asia. But although being located on Eurasian plates it is actually on a minor plate called "Amuria plate" which is still part of Eurasian plates but covers the far east of Russia and northeast China. Since South Korea does not sit on the major plate of Eurasia it does not experience much seismic activity. Despite being close to China and Japan where two countries experience a lot of seismic activity it does not affect the Korean peninsula as its neighboring countries. Because of significant tectonic movement throughout millions of years ago, South Korea is now located on a stable platform. In 2011, Japan experienced their biggest earthquake, Tohoku, which was so strong that it was able to affect Korea and brought consequences for the country. Kim So- Gu, who is head of the Korea seismological Institute states that the Tohoku earthquake was able to shift Korea's pen...