Thursday, December 6, 2012

Jeju Island Landscapes




Final Assessment

Jeju Island a Billion Years from Now!!


                                                                Peak of Mt Hallasan

Snow cap on Mt Hallasan


Mt Hallasan is home to the magnificent Baengnokdam crater lake and is created by the majestic cliffs, steep slopes, unique rock formations and making it ideal for hikers. As you can see in the pictures above, you can see the peak of where the snow gets packed through the cold winters. It mostly will pack more of the snow onto the inner part where the crater is because it's deeper than the outside of the volcano. The sun rises on the east causing the opposite side of the crater, casting a shadow which the snow will melt slower. It also depends on the shadow of where the sun hits and therefore you will be able to see which area of the crater will melt faster or slower. The landform around Mt Hallasan is created by material deposited by the water due the environment as well. In about 10,000 or 100,000 years from now, Mt Hallasan can become less of what it looks like now. 




Geomuneoreum



The Geomunoreum Lava Tube System incorporates Geomunoreum and five other caves: Manjanggul, Gimnyeonggul, Yongcheondonggul, Bengduigul, and Dancheomuldonggul.
Geomunoreum is 456m above sea level in Jeju and refers to the oreum (Jeju dialect for small volcano).  In between 100,000 and 1,000,000 years from now, The oreum, where the lava from the volcanic activity occurred, it can change along the northeastern coastal slopes and sculpt new and unique landscape of Seonheulgot, another cave. The lava from before has also created a series of unique caves also known as lava tubes as well. 






Udo Island Sea Stack


As you can see in the picture above is the sea stack. Parts of the cliffs start to break off and eventually float away or turns out like the one in the picture how it's just next the part where it broke off from. Erosional landforms are created by the breaking down of rock formations over time due to outside forces and conditions. In 10,000 years from now, parts of the cliffs that already fell off can break even more until it starts to get smaller. 




Udo Island Sunrise Peak



The island gets its name, Cow Island, from its shape, which when viewed from afar looks like a cow lying down. The coastal landscape in Jeju is always changing due to the frequent rain they receive year-round. It can cause the tide and waves to rise and damage the coast. The formations such as sea caves will begin to form over time. In the Sunrise Peak, there will be new caves forming in about 1,000,000 years from now due to the rough tides that wash up against it taking parts of the rocks out and carving it's way through. 






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Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Coastal landforms and Processes


Ocean Cimate in Jeju Island

Located in eastern region of the continent and in the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, Jeju has strong characteristics of east-coast climate. It experiences clear changes of season because of its geographic setting as a lone island off in a distant sea. Jeju experiences relatively short winters and longer summers. While it is affected, as other areas in Korea, by the northwest wintertime monsoon, Jeju is also affected by the southwest and southeast monsoons in summertime. Hallasan, being in the center of the island, causes climatic characteristics of each region. Climatic changes due to the surrounding sea waters and are responsible for significant influences on various geographical features and also on the lives of the regions inhabitants. According to Koppen's classification of climate, the climate of Jeju is classed as a subtropical humid climate so that most areas, except mountainous regions, maintain a mild winter with relatively consistent precipitation.





Sanbang in Jeju Island

The precipitation of Jeju is influenced mainly through cyclone activity: precipitation of seasonal rain takes place mostly in summer months and precipitation caused by typhoons takes place in both summer and autumn. There is also a very limited amount of precipitation caused by North Pacific anticyclone activity in summer months and Siberian anticyclone activity in wintertime. Precipitation is largely caused by southwest and southeast air currents. In wintertime precipitation is often caused by the northwest air current.
Jeju has the highest annual precipitation of Korea ranging from 1,000 to 1,800 mm. However, the precipitation distribution in Jeju Island is not evenly distributed as the average annual precipitation of Gosan.




Sea Cliff

Due to Jeju’s frequent storms that hit the island monthly, the best predictor for what coastal landforms in Jeju may look in the future will be determined by the erosion patterns displayed on the island. Erosional landforms are created by the breaking down of rock formations over time due to outside forces and conditions. Natural landscapes in Jeju Island was formed from volcanic activity. As a result, the drainage system, mountain system and coastal topography of Jeju show specific characteristics related to how and when the volcanic activities occurred. The island as a whole formed from a shield volcano with Hallasan as a central, and main, eruptive center. The total coastline, of approximately 253 km is mostly made up of rocky shores of exposed volcanic rock, and occasionally small-sized pocket beaches with sand dunes in some areas.







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Thursday, October 11, 2012

Hydrology

The Gotjawal Forest



 The Gotjawal Forest covers approximately 86 square miles of Jeju Island.  It has a direct water source to the residents who live on Jeju Island. The "Gotjawal" refers to a forest mixed with trees and bushes. The Gotjawal forest also includes a pahoehoe lava. The term "Gotjawal Lava" is used instead of "A a" and can be useful in land and groundwater managment. Most people insist that the meaning should not be restricted to the geological features. It's important to protect Gotjawal because of the island's groundwater.
 
 
 

Saturated surface of the rainforest
 
 


Groundwater Aquifer
 

 
The forest accumulates water through the diffusion of rainwater into the groundwater aquifer. Rain water penetrates directly into the groundwater through cracks in the region's earth. There are cracks in the basalt lava underneath the forest which takes in water and are stored in the layers underneath the forests surface. The saturated zone or the phreatic zone stores only water and is also stored in the sediment beneath the aeration zone (vedos zone) layer. This layer is made up of both water and air directly underneath the Earth’s surface.

 
 
 
 
 

Drawdown Pump
 
 
The process of the drawdown pump is to take water out of the aquifers from the wells and pumping of the water. This is only used when refilling the aquifer from rainfalls and the aquifer would be in a dynamic equilibruim from which water is taken out. If the island does not have a good amount of rainfall throughout the year, the residents on Jeju would suffer from the consequences the drawdown will have if it has not been recharged from the aquifer.

 
 
 


 Typical scene of Gotjawal Forest







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Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Volcanic Landforms of Jeju Island


Hallasan is the name of this volcano. It is the central volcanic peak of Jeju Island.
 

Hallasan is the largest volcano found on a single mountain peak. It's a Shield volcano which the eruptions basal and trachyte lava built the island above sea level. It's famous for the ecological diversity. Unlike most volcanos which are formed from Earth’s crust or the boundaries between tectonic plates, Jeju Island's volcanic eruption took place beneath the middle of the tectonic plate creating this large volcano. Hiking on this volcano allows you to see a beautiful view of Jeju Island as well.
 
 



 
 
 Baengnokdam
The crater is in the center of the volcano, it's name is known as Baekbokdam.
 
 
 
As you can see in the picture, the crater was formed from an eruption of the volcano millions of years ago. The volcano is a circular depression in the ground caused by the volcanic activity. It was formed from magma when it had erupted as gases and lava occured. The crater was also formed from the erupted volcanic deposits such as lava flows and tephra.The lava flow that errupted from this volcano made the structure and had left small pieces of rocks around the crater which was created in the center, making a nice senery for travelers to hike on and explore what's on the Hallasan volcano. There are many interesting things that can be found on the volcano and has many evidences of how it was formed. 
 
 
 
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Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Jeju Island


 Hello everyone, my name is Patao Cha. The place I chose was Jeju Island, South Korea. I selected this area because I want to visit Korea one day and this beautiful island. I find this island interesting with beautiful scenery and a great place to travel. Jeju Island has many hidden places that I would like to find and explore what’s out there.