A study of deformation around the Korea strait prior to MW9.0 Tohoku earthquake

On 11 March 2011, a great earthquake with magnitude 9.0 has occurred in Tohoku, Japan, more than 1,000 km from South Korea. In fact, seismicity rate in South Korea has increased since the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, although detailed evaluation of its effects on the Korean Peninsula remains incomplete. Now, the high precision space geodesy techniques play a key role in monitoring the crustal strain state and energy variation. This study attempts to evaluate crustal deformation around the Korean Strait after 2011 Tohoku earthquake through a detailed analysis recorded by GPS. Moreover, this study found a different fault characteristic in Japan affect the station displacement prior to GPS data observed among 2011 to 2012. After a year, the strain in Japan found in direction WNW-ESE, while in Korea found in direction WSW-ENE. This finding suggests the likelihood of the existence of a certain tectonic line between the southern part of Korea peninsula and Japan.

Propagation of a Meteotsunami from the Yellow Sea to the Korea Strait in April 2019

A meteotsunami with a wave height of 0.1–0.9 m and a period of 60 min was observed at tide gauges along the Korea Strait on 7 April 2019, while a train of two to four atmospheric pressure disturbances with disturbance heights of 1.5–3.9 hPa moved eastward from the Yellow Sea to the Korea Strait. Analysis of observational data indicated that isobar lines of the atmospheric pressure disturbances had angles of 75–83° counterclockwise due east and propagated with a velocity of 26.5–31.0 m/s. The generation and propagation process of the meteotsunami was investigated using the Regional Ocean Modeling System. The long ocean waves were amplified due to Proudman resonance in the southwestern Yellow Sea, where the water is deeper than 75 m; here, the long ocean waves were refracted toward the coast on the shallow coastal region of the northern Korea Strait. Refraction and reflection by offshore islands significantly affect the wave heights at the coast. To investigate the effects of an eastward-moving velocity and angle of atmospheric pressure disturbance on the height of a long ocean wave, sensitivity simulations were performed. This result will be useful for the real-time prediction system of meteotsunamis in the Korea Strait.

Vertical viscosity coefficient increased for high-resolution modeling of the Tsushima/Korea Strait

This study clarifies the necessity of an extraordinary large coefficient of vertical viscosity for dynamical ocean modeling in a shallow and narrow strait with complex bathymetry. Sensitivity experiments and objective analyses imply that background momentum viscosity is at the order of 100 cm2/s, while tracer diffusivity estimates are on the order of 0.1 cm2/s. The physical interpretation of these estimates is also discussed in the last part of this paper. To obtain reliable solutions, this study introduces cyclic application of the dynamical response to each parameter to minimize the number of long-term sensitivity experiments. The recycling Green’s function method yields weaker bottom friction and enhanced latent heat flux simultaneously with the increased viscosity in high-resolution modeling of the Tsushima/Korea Strait.

Study of the tidal dynamics of the Korea Strait using the extended Taylor method

The Korea Strait (KS) is a major navigation passage linking the Japan Sea (JS) to the East China Sea and Yellow Sea. Almost all existing studies of the tides in the KS employed either data analysis or numerical modelling methods; thus, theoretical research is lacking. In this paper, we idealize the KS–JS basin as four connected uniform-depth rectangular areas and establish a theoretical model for the tides in the KS and JS using the extended Taylor method. The model-produced K1 and M2 tides are consistent with the satellite altimeter and tidal gauge observations, especially for the locations of the amphidromic points in the KS. The model solution provides the following insights into the tidal dynamics. The tidal system in each area can be decomposed into two oppositely travelling Kelvin waves and two families of Poincaré modes, with Kelvin waves dominating the tidal system. The incident Kelvin wave can be reflected at the connecting cross section, where abrupt increases in water depth and basin width occur from the KS to JS. At the connecting cross section, the reflected wave has a phase-lag increase relative to the incident wave of less than 180∘, causing the formation of amphidromic points in the KS. The above phase-lag increase depends on the angular velocity of the wave and becomes smaller as the angular velocity decreases. This dependence explains why the K1 amphidromic point is located farther away from the connecting cross section in comparison to the M2 amphidromic point.

Settlement and Recruitment Potential of Four Invasive and One Indigenous Barnacle Species in South Korea and Their Future

Invasion by nonindigenous species is a major threat to marine ecosystems. In this study, the distribution and occupied area (as a percentage) of four invasive barnacle species (Amphibalanus amphitrite, Amphibalanus eburneus, Amphibalanus improvisus, Perforatus perforatus), and one indigenous (Balanus trigonus) barnacle species in 13 ports in three Korean seas (Yellow Sea, Korea Strait, and East Sea) were investigated. The average ratio for all five species was 11.17% in summer and 7.59% in winter, indicating a higher occupancy in summer. B. trigonus, which is an indigenous species, was found on all ports, except for one (IC). Of the invasive species, A. amphitrite was found mainly in the Yellow Sea, A. improvisus in the Korea Strait, and A. eburneus along with P. perforatus were found in the East Sea. From nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis, six parameters related to water temperature and salinity were found to be significantly correlated with the distribution and occupancy status of these five barnacle species. Using the six parameters as independent variables, random forest (RF) models were developed. Based on these models, the predicted future dominant invasive species were A. improvisus and A. amphitrite in the Yellow Sea and P. perforatus in the East Sea and Korea Strait. This study suggests that long-term monitoring of invasive species is crucial, and that determining the relationship between the results of monitoring and environmental variables can be helpful in predicting the damage caused by invasive species resulting from environmental changes.

Study on the Tidal Dynamics of the Korea Strait Using the Extended Taylor Method

The Korea Strait (KS) is a major navigation passage linking the Japan Sea (JS) to the East China Sea and Yellow Sea. Almost all existing studies on the tides in the KS employed either data analysis or numerical modelling methods; thus, theoretical research is lacking. In this paper, we idealize the KS-JS basin as three connected uniform-depth rectangular areas and establish a theoretical model for the tides in the KS and JS using the extended Taylor method. The model-produced K1 and M2 tides are consistent with the satellite altimeter and tidal gauge observations, especially for the locations of the amphidromic points in the KS. The model solution provides the following insights into the tidal dynamics. The tidal system in each area can be decomposed into two oppositely travelling Kelvin waves and two families of Poincaré modes, with Kelvin waves dominating the tidal system. The incident Kelvin wave can be reflected at the connecting cross-section, where abrupt increases in water depth and basin width occur from the KS to JS. At the connecting cross-section, the reflected wave has a phase-lag increase relative to the incident wave by less than 180°, causing the formation of amphidromic points in the KS. The above phase-lag increase depends on the angular frequency of the wave and becomes smaller as the angular frequency decreases. This dependence explains why the K1 amphidromic point is located farther away from the connecting cross-section in comparison to the M2 amphidromic point.