Petrological Study and Provenance Estimation on the Stone Materials used in the Woldae of Gwanghwamun, Korea

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the stone materials used in the Woldae of Kwanghwamun gate to estimate their provenances. The Woldae was partly reconstructed in 2010 using red-colored original stone and greyish new stone. We carried out geological survey in Mt. Bukhan (Bukhansan) and Mt. Surak (Suraksan) to estimate the source of stone, where red-colored granitic rocks are widely distributed. Though the petrographical features of the granitic rocks from the surveyed area are quite similar, there exists a slight variation of magnetic susceptibility and color index of the rocks: the granitic rocks from Mt. Surak have higher value of magnetic susceptibility and clearer reddish feature. A series of evidence, such as historical records, stone cutting traces and petrographical features, for the source of stone materials used in the Woldae tells that Mt. Surak would have been the provenance for the stone materials used in the Woldae. We also conducted a nondestructive test to examine the physical property of the rocks. The original stone shows low compressive strength (147 MPa) due to the weathering, whereas the rock in Mt. Surak has higher compressive strength (244 MPa) capable of being used as building materials. If there were any difficulties to use the granitic rocks in Mt. Surak, some granitic rocks that have similar petrological characteristics, such as Changsu stone and Yeongjung stone from the Pocheon area, could be used as building material instead.