The Journal of Engineering Geology ISSN:1226-5268(Print) 2287-7169(Online) 지질공학

There are a variety of types in tafoni formed in Miocene tuff from Golgulsa, Gyeongju. Tuff bearing tafoni was quite weathered, composed of quartz, feldspars, micas, vermiculite, chlorite, smectite, and analcite. In the early stage of the tafoni development, tafoni preferentially formed from cavities where volcanic breccias were removed or from microcavities where microcrystals were chemically altered. Small tafoni grew into large one by merging each other. The orientation of tafoni is inversely arranged to slopes, with slight inclination toward the inner cavity. Height, width, and depth of tafoni are closely interrelated: the correlation coefficients are 0.839 (width-height), 0.900 (width-depth), and 0.856 (height-depth), respectively. Removal of walls between tafoni resulted in lenticular or crescent forms, and small tafoni laterally combined to large tafoni. Large tafoni is weak because of high porosity and low strength compared to normal slope. Therefore, systematic monitoring for slope strength, pore proportion and volume, and growth of cavity needs to secure the slope stability where tafoni in Golgulsa is widespread.