Jeong-Seon Koh

Petrology of the Basalts in the Seongsan-Ilchulbong area, Jeju Island

This study reports petrography and geochemical characteristics of the basalt lava flows in Seongsan-Ilchulbong area, the easternpart of Jeju island, Korea, to understand the evolutionary processes of magma. Basalt lavas are classified into the Pyoseon-ri basalt and the Seongsan-ri basalt. The Pyoseon-ri basalt is dark-gray colored with many vescicles, and mainly consists of olivine, feldspar and rarely of clinopyroxene as phenocrysts. The Seongsan-ri basalt is largely aphanitic basalt and bright-gray colored, divided into two lava-flow units: lower lava flow (B1) and upper lava flow (B2) by the intercalated yellowish lapillistone and paleosol. The lavas plotted into sub-alkaline tholeiitic basalt and alkaline basalt series. The tholeiitic basalts have characteristically higher , and CaO contents, but lower and other incompatible elements compared to the alkali basalts. The tholeiitic basalts have higher to the same MgO contents than the alkalic basalts. The contents of Ni, Cr, and MgO show a strong positive correlation, which indicates that low-MgO phases like plagioclase and titanomagnetite were important during the differentiation of magma. The contents of incompatible elements against that of Th show a strong positive correlation. The chondrite-nomalized REE patterns of tholeiitic and alkalic basalts are subparallel each other. LREEs contents of the former are lower than, but HREEs contents are similar to the latter. They both are similar to their K/Ba ratios. The primitive-mantle normalized spider diagram demonstrates that the contents of Ba and Th of all basaltic magma are enriched, and yet Cr, Ni are depleted. The tholeiitic and alkalic basalts may be originated from a different degree of the partial melting of the same mantle material source, and one shows a higher degree of the partial melting than the other.

Analysis of and Ideas for Improving Descriptions of Igneous Rock Textures in High School Earth Science II Textbooks

The purpose of this study is to analyze the concept of igneous rock textures and to uncover incorrect descriptions regarding the concept found within high school Earth Science II course seventh curriculum textbooks. Based upon this analysis suggestions will be made so as to improve descriptions regarding the concept of igneous rock texture. At least some incorrect descriptions regarding igneous rock texture were found in all the textbooks examined. Textures of volcanic rocks are described as being either fine-grained and glassy or porphyritic, while those of plutonic rocks are described as hollocrystalline, granular, coarse-grained or equigranular. These descriptions may contribute to forming and/or reinforcing misconceptions about both the classification criteria for, as well as the general concept of igneous rock textures. Therefore, some improvement schemes for the classification of igneous rock textures have been suggested. These schemes suggest that volcanic rocks be classified as either aphanitic or porphyritic, while plutonic rocks be classified as phaneritic, hollocrystalline or equigranular according to granularity, crystallinity, and both the absolute and relative sizes of the crystals within the rock.

The Basalts and Volcanic Process in the Seondol Cinder Cone, Seobjikoji Area, Jeju Island

The purpose of this study is to determine the petrology of basalt and the volcanic process in the Seondol cinder cone, Seobjikoji area, eastern Jeju Island. The Seondol cinder cone is mainly composed of spatters in the lower part, pyroclastic deposits including reddish brown blocks, ashes with volcanic bombs in the middle part, and dark black scoria deposits in the upper part. The volcanic sequences suggest volcanic processes that progress through Strombolian eruption and end with Hawaiian lava effusion which breached the cinder cone northwestward and extended over northwestward as lava delta and basalt emplaced as a volcanic neck in the central part of crater in the cinder cone. The age of basalt lava flows is about . The basalts belong to transitional basalt and show products of fractional crystallization of clinopyroxene and olivine from a parental basalt magma on the basis of variation diagram of major, trace and rare earth elements. Basalts in the region of this study are plotted at the region of within plate basalt.

Origin of kaersutite in the basalt from Jeju Island(I): Biseokgeori hawaiite

Hawaiite which distributed in Sanjideungdae of Sarabong cinder cone and Biseokgeori area in northern part of Jeju island, contains phenocrysts of titanium-rich hornblende (kaersutite) and plagioclase with microphenocrysts of olivine, pyroxene and very small amounts of K-feldspar lath and apatite. Kaersutite is mostly euhedral or subhedral phenocrysts having opaque reaction rim. And kaersutite in Sanjideungdae area completely replaced to opaque minerals showing pseudomorph. Also it may be seen partly replacement of pyroxene by kaersutire as reaction rim. It is considered that hydration reaction had occurred with fluids. The crystallization pressure of kaersutite using pressure- geobarometer is approximately 6.3 kb in Sanjideungdae area and 4.9 kb in Biseokgeori area, respectively. As a result, fluid injection to magma and crystallization of kaersutite of Sanjideungdae hawaiite is deeper than that of Biseokgeori hawaiite, and it was growed to phenocrysts through crystallization. It is estimated that kaersutite of Biseokgeori hawaiite originated from crystallization from the host magma, based on the euhedral nature of the phenocrysts and on the presence of apatite inclusions.