Sunday, September 25, 2022

Korea is home to a small number of volcanoes but these volcanoes haven't been active for quite a while. The last recorded activity from a volcano located in Korea was in 1903 from Baekdu Mountain considered to be the biggest volcano in Korea. The other volcanoes in Korea are Ch'uga-ryong, Hallasan, and Ulleungdo. 

Since Korea hasn't had an eruption from any of its volcanoes in quite a while there are not many specific regulations currently in place for people to follow. Right now volcano hazards are managed by disaster management, natural hazard planning, and the health and safety regulations. They ensure that people and projects conform to all laws, regulations, rules and guidance, for land-use planning and building along with health and safety. 




Sources: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_volcanoes_in_Korea

https://thinkhazard.org/en/report/67-d-p-r-of-korea/VA

https://web.kma.go.kr/eng/weather/current_state/volcano.jsp#:~:text=There%20are%20three%20volcanoes%20in,activity%20being%20recorded%20in%201903.

https://volcano.si.edu/volcanolist_countries.cfm?country=South%20Korea#:~:text=South%20Korea%20has%203%20Holocene%20volcanoes.

https://vajiramias.com/current-affairs/mount-paektu/5da92b191d5def5b868d3a5c/'

https://www.corejeju.com/location/hallasan-mountain/

https://sites.google.com/site/ulleungdofieldguide/home/about-ulleungdo

https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/chuga-ryong.html









Friday, September 9, 2022

 Korea because it is in a safe zone near a convergent plate boundary doesn't experience many earthquakes, only 20 a year and when they do occur they are mostly not very serious ones, usually ranging from 2 to 3 on the Richter scale. The last earthquake Korea has had was on December 17st, 2021 and it was of magnitude 3.2


The map above shows all the earthquakes that occurred in 2016 and their magnitude. There were quite a few earthquakes throughout 2016 but as you can see only a few were above a magnitude of 3. Only 9 were recorded at a magnitude of 4 to 4.9 and only 5 were recorded magnitude 5. 

To help mitigate the damages of their earthquakes Korea by land use planning and zoning regulation through the National Land plane and Utilization Act, as well as individual buildings being subjected to building laws. National laws have also been put into place that say any building higher than 3 stories must require an earthquake resistant design. Alongside this the 2001 Comprehensive Earthquake Prevention Plan of Seoul Metropolitan Government requires all existing buildings of any type to be examined. 

References:

https://web.kma.go.kr/eng/weather/earthquake/intro.jsp#:~:text=The%20average%20number%20of%20earthquake,and%20it%20occurred%20in%201980.

https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/earthquakes/south-korea/archive/2021.html

https://public.wmo.int/en/bulletin/reducing-disaster-risk-cities-%E2%80%94-republic-korea%E2%80%99s-experience

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Earthquake_map_in_South_Korea.svg




Saturday, September 3, 2022

 

According to the map above Korea is in a safe zone away from a Convergent Plate Boundary. It is also apart of the Eurasian Plate and while it may seem like it from maps Korea is in fact not a part of the Ring of Fire. Meaning that Korea does not have much seismic activity and few volcanoes. In fact Korea only has four Holocene volcanoes, meaning that the volcanoes have been active for the last 11,700 years. The four volcanoes are called Ch'uga-ryong, Halla, Ulreung, and Baekdu Mountain. And there has been minimal activity from them. The last time any activity was recorded was in 1903 from the largest of the volcanoes that being Mt. Baekdu. Alongside this there has only been 20 earthquakes per year since 1978 in Korea, and most of these earthquakes have been 2.0 to 5.0, which is not considered very high. The highest magnitude of earthquake recorded was a 5.8 in 2016 called the Gyengju earthquake. The most recent earthquake was recorded in 2017 called the Pohang earthquake and was recorded as a 5.4 magnitude earthquake. In conclusion Korea is pretty safe from most disasters involving tectonic plates thanks to its position outside of the ring of fire and in a safe zone away from any converging, diverging, or transforming plate boundaries. 


Refrences

https://www.nps.gov/subjects/geology/plate-tectonics-evidence-of-plate-motions.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_of_Fire

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_earthquakes_in_South_Korea

https://web.kma.go.kr/eng/weather/earthquake/intro.jsp#:~:text=The%20average%20number%20of%20earthquake,and%20it%20occurred%20in%201980.

https://volcano.si.edu/volcanolist_countries.cfm?country=South%20Korea

https://web.kma.go.kr/eng/weather/current_state/volcano.jsp

https://homework.study.com/explanation/what-is-a-holocene-volcano.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_volcanoes_in_Korea




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