Early Paleozoic Deposits and Topography of Stream Erosion of Gumunso, Taebaek

Gumunso in Taebaek lies within the watercourse at the mouth of the Hwangjicheon stream. ‘Gumun’ is an old word for a hole or cave, and the name means ‘a marsh with a cave’. Today the Hwangjicheon flows through a stream-cut cave and Gumunso before joining the Cheolamcheon and running on into the Nakdonggang River; but before the cave was cut through, the Hwangjicheon used to loop in a great meander around the south-west of the cave, and it came to flow as it does today only once the cave had opened up. The limestone around Gumunso, Taebaek, contains sedimentary structures such as mudcracks, ripple marks, salt-crystal casts and bird’s-eye structures, together with a wide variety of animal fossils including trilobites, brachiopods and cephalopods, so that both the sedimentary environment and the biota of the early Paleozoic can be observed together here. In addition, the lower course of the Hwangjicheon, flowing as it does through the cave, is together with the Hyeonnaecheon a site of great scientific interest for the study of changes in stream courses. Gumunso is recorded as ‘Cheoncheon’ (穿川, ‘a river bored through with a hole’) in old documents such as the Sejong Sillok Jiriji, the geographical appendix to the Annals of King Sejong, and along with its various legends its scenery is very beautiful. The ancient environment and eroded landforms of Gumunso, Taebaek, display a range of geomorphological and geological features, including sedimentary structures and eroded landforms, and provide important material for research into the ancient environment of the early Paleozoic, giving the site great academic value. (The name was changed from ‘Early Paleozoic Strata and Stream-Eroded Landforms of Gumunso, Taebaek’ to ‘Ordovician Strata and Quaternary Stream-Eroded Landforms of Gumunso, Taebaek’, announced on 26 July 2021.)

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Where it is

Region

Taebaek, Gangwon

Designation

Natural Monument · 천연기념물