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Structural Evolution of the Eastern Margin of Korea: Implications for the Opening of the East Sea (Japan Sea)  

Kim Han-Joon (Korea Ocean R & D Institute)
Jou Hyeong-Tae (Korea Ocean R & D Institute)
Lee Gwang-Hoon (Bukyung University)
Yoo Hai-Soo (Korea Ocean R & D Institute)
Park Gun-Tae (Korea Ocean R & D Institute)
Publication Information
Economic and Environmental Geology / v.39, no.3, 2006 , pp. 235-253 More about this Journal
Abstract
We interpreted marine seismic profiles in conjunction with swath bathymetric and magnetic data to investigate rifting to breakup processes at the Korean margin leading to the separation of the Japan Arc. The Korean margin is rimmed by fundamental elements of rift architecture comprizing a seaward succession of a rift basin and an uplifted rift flank passing into the slope, typical of a passive continental margin. In the northern part, rifting occurred in the Korea Plateau, a continental fragment extended and partially segmented from the Korean Peninsula, that provided a relatively broader zone of extension resulting in a number of rifts. Two distinguished rift basins (Onnuri and Bandal Basins) in the Korea Plateau we bounded by major synthetic and smaller antithetic faults, creating wide and symmetric profiles. The large-offset border fault zones of these basins have convex dip slopes and demonstrate a zig-zag arrangement along strike. In contrast, the southern margin is engraved along its length with a single narrow rift basin (Hupo Basin) that is an elongated asymmetric half-graben. Rifting at the Korean margin was primarily controlled by normal faulting resulting from extension in the west and southeast directions orthogonal to the inferred line of breakup along the base of the slope rather than strike-slip deformation. Although rifting involved no significant volcanism, the inception of sea floor spreading documents a pronounced volcanic phase which seems to reflect slab-induced asthenospheric upwelling as well as rift-induced convection particularly in the narrow southern margin. We suggest that structural and igneous evolution of the Korean margin can be explained by the processes occurring at the passive continental margin with magmatism intensified by asthenospheric upwelling in a back-arc setting.
Keywords
Multichannel seismic profiles; Korean margin; Back-arc rifting; Pronounced volcanic phase; Passive continental margin;
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