Mineralogical Characteristics of Reclaimed Flat Tidal Soils Along Western Coastal Line in Korea.

The aim of this investigation was to identify the basic mineralogical characteristics of reclaimed flat tidal soils in relation to geologic distribution and factors to provide some clues for development of proper management practices for highly saline and sodic reclaimed flat tidal soils. The importance of the tidal flat area in Korea is in providing valuable agricultural land resources for additional farmland to improve food self-sufficiency due to limited arable land resources. However, the newly developed reclaimed flat tidal soils(RFTS) is not adequate to be used as upland because of high groundwater table close to soil surface and very poor drainage. In addition to these problems, acid sulfate soil(AS), known to be formed by iron sulfide mineral sediment or organic substrates (e.g. peat) that are formed under waterlogged conditions within the RFTS was found in a newly constructed in tidal flat area located along the end of southwestern coastal line in Korea. Therefore, we collected the soil samples to investigated the mineralogical characteristics of acid sulfate soil and saline-sodic soils from the two different locations along western coastal line in Korea. For analysis of mineralogical characteristics of soil samples, we used XRD, SEM, and SEM-EDS, as well as Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) for inorganic cations and heavy metals. The results of XRD represented that there were illite and quartz and kaolinite, illite, and quartz for RFTS and AS, respectively.       

Keyword : Mineralogy, XRD, SEM, SEM-EDS, Reclaimed flat tidal soils