A review of sediment dynamical processes in the west coast of Korea, eastern Yellow Sea

Abstract

Sediment dynamical processes began to be systematically monitored in the west coast of Korea facing the eastern Yellow Sea in the 1990s. The early investigations were largely conducted aboard vessels that provided results where the resolution was highly restricted in both temporal and spatial aspects. However, full-fledged autonomous instruments introduced early in the 2000s allowed for a quantum leap in the level of this sub-field of sedimentology. The investigated sites include various environments such as estuaries, bays, tidal flats, beaches, and offshore deposits. Among them, a total of seven sites were selected for the review: Han estuary, Daeho tidal flats, Garolim Bay, Saemangeum Region, Byunsan Beach, Gomso Bay, and Huksan Mud Belt. The major results from each site were briefly summarized. The summary clearly demonstrates that wind-generated currents and waves particularly during winter should be carefully considered in interpreting sedimentary environments. This is because winter-season processes interrupt or actively displace much of the sediments worked by tidal currents in the remaining seasons. The summary hence suggests that seasonal investigations of sediment dynamics are necessary to understand shallow-water sedimentation in the west coast of Korea that is governed complicatedly by two major forcing agents: waves and tidal currents.