ORIGINAL ARTICLE Granite Landform Diversity and Dynamics Underpin Geoheritage Values of Seoraksan Mountains, Republic of Korea Piotr Migoń 1 & Marek Kasprzak 1 & Kyung Sik Woo 2 Received: 5 May 2018 /Accepted: 8 October 2018 # The Author(s) 2018 Abstract Seoraksan Mountains in the Republic of Korea are presented as an area of outstanding geodiversity combining rock-controlled granite landforms, inherited cold-climate landforms and highly active contemporary geomorphological processes. Three gener- ations of granites, ranging in age from Proterozoic to Cretaceous, are present and each of these supports distinctive morphology. Cretaceous granites are associated with most spectacular features such as domes and towers, fins, long rock slopes, and fluvial gorges. The latter host abundant waterfalls of different types, potholes, and bedrock channels. While no clear glacial landforms exist in Seoraksan, widespread blockfields, blockslopes, and blockstreams constitute the cold-climate legacy of potentially important palaeoclimatic significance. Slope steepness and extreme rainfall events are the decisive factors to explain frequent mass movements which leave visible erosional and depositional evidence on slopes and in valley floors. The geodiversity of Seoraksan makes the area highly suitable for outdoor geo-education and it is also argued that the area represents a highly diverse, non-glaciated mountainous geomorphological system that integrates source and sink areas and is of exceptional value and extraordinary scenic beauty. Keywords Granite landforms . Geodiversity . Rock control . Viewpoint geosites . Seoraksan Introduction Within the general concept of geoheritage, the major interest is implicitly on inherited geological and geomorphological features which record various events from the history of the Earth (Reynard and Brilha 2018). Furthermore, these features are often fragile and at risk of irreversible transformation or even complete loss due to either natural processes or, perhaps more often, hu- man activities. Thus, evaluation of geoheritage values typically goes hand in hand with conservation initiatives and proposals, aimed at designing best strategies to preserve valuable geological localities as they are (Prosser et al. 2013, 2018; Larwood et al. 2013; Gordon et al. 2018). This past-oriented and conservation- driven approach needs to be refined in dynamic mountainous environments, especially in the so-called Bhigh mountains.^ In these settings, ongoing surface geomorphic processes consider- ably modify the physical landscape and as far as the scenery is concerned, rather little testifies to the distant geological past. In many specific cases in mid- to high latitudes, glacial landforms dominate the scenery but even these usually date back to the late Pleistocene. In such mountain environments, the contemporary geodiversity rather than the variety of inherited features is often considered decisive for the geoheritage value (Panizza 2009; Giardino et al. 2017; Coratza and Hobléa 2018). However, some mountain ranges, even if they were glaciated in the Pleistocene, retain their pre-Quaternary geomorphic features at both macro (e.g., remnants of elevated surfaces of low relief) and medium scale (e.g., tors and blockfields), formed under long-term controls of geological setting and climate change (Slaymaker and Embleton-Hamann 2009, 2018; Hall et al. 2013; Gunnell 2015). Thus, mountain geomorphological landscapes are inher- ently complex and this needs to be reflected in both geoheritage and geodiversity assessment (Thomas 2012; Gordon 2018). In this paper, our focus is on one of the highest mountain ranges of the Korean Peninsula—Seoraksan Mountains, located in the north-eastern part of the Republic of Korea. Its biodiversity and esthetic values have long been known and appreciated, including the establishment of a National Park in 1970 and a UNESCO * Piotr Migoń piotr.migon@uwr.edu.pl 1 Institute of Geography and Regional Development, University of Wrocław, pl. Uniwersytecki 1, 50-137 Wrocław, Poland 2 Department of Geology, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, Republic of Korea https://doi.org/10.1007/s12371-018-0332-x Geoheritage (2019) 11:751–764 /Published online: 15 October 2018