Pediment and Bloekstream in the vicinity of Kwanju, Korea

Abstract

Visiting Kwanju in August 1970, the writer had the opportunity to observe erosion surfaces and blockstreams. The erosion surfaces are composed of gentle slopes that turn abruptly to steep escarpments, and flat top hills, the tops of which are almost of the same height. The gentle slopes are underlain with veneers 2 or 3 meters thick and is composed of cobbles, boulders and/or coarse sand not well bedded and sorted. On the top of hills, rock fragments are scattered in the soil. The writer supposes these erosion surfaces are dissected pediplain.
Blockstrearas are found here and there in Korea. One of them at Mt. Kyoryong near Namwon is accumulated on dissected pediment. It is 300 meters long and 30-20 meters wide. Diameter of blocks in the blockstream is about a meter. It seems that this block-stream is not moving at present. On the west side slope of Mt. Moodeung, about 8 km to the east from Kwanju, blocks cover the whole surface of the slope. This is so-called “blockfield”. At the east side slope, there are blockstrams and blockfield. But the writer could not judge whether these blockstreams and blockfields are moving or not at present.