Silty Tidal Rhythmites from the Upper Pleistocene Sedimentary Sequence, Western Coast of Korea

Silty tidal rhythmites were found from the upper Pleistocene sequence unconformably overlain by the Holocene tidal deposits within the macrotidal coastal zone of Youngjong Island, western coast of Korea. The rhythmites occur as vertically accreted, parallel and planar laminae that are 0.1-2.5 mm in thickness. Each lamina grades from coarse silt (mean grain size: 5-6.5 ${\phi}$) at the lower part into fine silt to mud (mean grain size: 6-7.5 ${\phi}$) at the upper part. The rhythmites can be classified into two types based on the patterns in laminar thickness variation. Type I is a bundle of 12-20 laminae in which laminar thickness varies sinusoidally. Type ll is an alternation of thick and thin laminae as a couplet. Type I is inferred as a product of varying tidal energy during a semimonthly (neap-spring) tidal cycle, in which thicker laminae were deposited during spring tides and thinner laminae were formed during neap tides. Type ll is interpreted to have been formed by asymmetric semidiurnal tidal currents in association with diurnal inequality, whereby thick lamina of each couplet represents dominant tidal current and the thin lamina reflects subordinate tidal current.