• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.829-833
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• 2017

Recently, pirate incidents involving passing ships have been continuously occurring in the seas southwest of the Philippines, the Sulu Sea and the Celebes Sea. Pirates in these areas are members of the "Abu Sayyaf Group", which consists of Islamic armed rebels. They have abducted and confined 59 ship crews over the last 13 months to obtain money for group operations. The activities of these pirates, abducting and killing crews, have became a significant threat for marine security in the Sulu and Celebes Seas and for logistic activities in Asia. This study examines and analyzes 22 recent incidents in terms of ships gross tonnage, kind, nationality, incident time, location, etc. The identity of the Abu Sayyaf Group, which has been committing this piracy and represents the de facto power behind the actors responsible, is also unpacked, along with current challenges to resolving these conflicts. Finally, responses passing ships, shipping companies, related countries and the international community should make are proposed.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.15-26
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• 1998

The Dabie-Sulu ultra-high pressure metamorphic (UHPM) zone is commonly suggested to be a collisional belt between the Sino-Korea craton (North China craton) and Yangtze craton (Zhai and Cong, 1996). Two important questions in formulating the tectonic evolution of the northeast Asia are : (1) the boundary between the UHPM zone and the Sino-Korea craton in the Shandong peninsula and (2) the extension of this Chinese UHPM zone into the Korean peninsula. There have been different opinions on the boundary between UHPM zone and the Sino-Korea craton in the Shandong peninsula. For example, the boundary has been suggested to be the Tan-Lu fault (Bai et al., 1993; Wang and Cong, 1996), or Wulian-Rongcheng fault (Cao et al., 1990). Our recent study finds out new evidences, indicating that the possible boundary is the Kunyushan granitoid complex zone, which occurs along the Wulian-Muping fault. Our new evidences are : (1) the basic rocks west to the Kunyushan granitoid zone are high-pressure granulites rather than eclogites (Zhai, 1996) with their Sm-Nd isotopic ages of 1750 Ma and 2788 Ma, representing their retrograde metamorphic and petrogenetic ages, respectively (Li et al., 1997b); (2) the orthogneisses west to the Kunyushan granitoid zone yield 2600-2900 Ma zircon ages and 1600-2020 Ma Rb-Sr and chemical U-Th-total Pb ages, with no younger data (Enami et al., 1993; Ishizaka et al., 1994), having a typical characteristic for the early Precambrian rocks in the Sino-Korea craton; (3) the orthogneisses east to the Kunyushan granitoid zone have 110-320 Ma isotopic ages with a peak value of 180-230 Ma, showing a typical characteristic of metamorphic rocks in the UHPM zone; (4) the Kunyushan granitoid zone consists of numerous granitic bodies, stocks and veins, which have 1900-2000 Ma, 610-710 Ma and 124-180 Ma istotopic ages indicating a long and complicated evolution history of this granitoid zone. There are many lenses and enclosures of metamorphic rocks from the Sino-Korea craton and Sulu UHPM belt in the Kunyushan granitoid zone. Zhai et al. (1998) have defined the Kunyushan granitoid zone as the Jiaodong Boundary complex zone. Some geologists suggested that the UHPM zone extend eastward to the Korea peninsula (Yin and Nie, 1993; Wang and Cong, 1996) and possibly to the Imjingang belt (Chang, 1994; Ree et al., 1996). Unfortunately, there has not been a conclusive evidence indicating that UHPM rocks occur in the Korea peninsula. In this regard, it becomes more important to compare metamorphic rocks in the Shandong peninsula with those in northern and southern Korea peninsula.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.180-188
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• 2007

We carried on CHIME zircon age dating for the Gamaksan alkaline meta-granitoid (GAM) from the northwestern margin of the Gyeonggi massif, and obtained a timing of regional metamorphism at $247{\pm}14Ma$ (n=103, MSWD=0.92). The age is compatible with Permo-Triassic regional metamorphic ages from the Imjingang Belt which has been regarded as possible eastward extension of Triassic collisional belt in China. Considering an extensional ductile shearing of the Gyeonggi (Kyonggi) Shear Zone which deformed GAM occurred at 226 Ma with temperature condition about $500^{\circ}C$ (Kim et al., 2000), and the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic Daedong Group unconformably overlies on top of the ductile shear zone, cooling rate of GAM over the period can be estimated as $18{\sim}10^{\circ}C/Ma$. Since new zircon begin to pow at temperature higher than upper-amphibolite facies condition (${\sim}700^{\circ}C$), cooling rate of GAM from peak metamorphism (247 Ma) to deposition of the Daedong G.oup (${\sim}$Early Jurassic) would be higher than $10^{\circ}C/Ma$. Such rapid cooling rate is compatible with that reported from exhumation stage of the Dabie-Sulu Belt, and supports an idea that the Gyeonngi massif is a part of Permo-Triassic orogenic belt in East Asia.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.113-125
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• 2017

We investigates geochemical and tectonic characteristics for the Triassic Bojangsan trachyte in the southern margin of the Imjingang belt. The geochemical signatures of the thracyte are characterized by enrichments of REE and HFS, and show no Nb trough, suggesting that would not experience arc magmatic processes involving continental crustal materials. The trachyte reveals within-plate setting in tectonic discrimination diagrams using immobile HFS Nb and Y elements. And the trachyte shows typical signatures of A-type volcanic rocks with high Ga abundance and is classified as A1-type volcanic rocks rich in Nb. The geochemical signatures suggest that the trachyte was produced by the differentiation of mantle-derived magmatism at the continental rift in extensional setting subsequent to a major collision during the Permo-Triassic Songrim orogeny. The results provide robust evodence to consider the Imjingang belt as an extension of the the Qinling-Dabie-Sulu belt between the North and South China blocks.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.107-124
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• 2015

The 'Imjin System' (or Rimjin System) was established in 1962 as a new stratigraphic unit separated from the Upper Paleozoic Pyeongan System based on the discovery of brachiopods and echinoderms of possible Devonian age. Subsequent discoveries of the Middle Devonian charophytes confirmed the Devonian age of the system. The Imjin System is distributed in the Imjingang Belt between the Pyongnam Basin and the Gyeonggi Massif, spans from the eastern areas including Cholwon-gun of the Gangwon Province, Gumchon-gun, Phanmun-gun, and Tosan-gun of the Hwanghaebuk Province, to the western areas of Gangryong-gun and Ongjin-gun of the Hwanghaenam Province, and includes the Yeoncheon Group (metamorphic complex) to the south. Unlike the lower Paleozoic strata in the Pyongnam Basin which solely produce marine invertebrate fossils, the Imjin System yields diverse non-marine plant and algal fossils. Brachiopods of the system are similar to those from the Devonian of the South China Block and include taxa endemic to the platform, implying a close paleogeographic affinity to the South China Block. The Imjin System is generally considered as of Middle to Late Devonian in age, although there have been suggestions that the system is of the Middle Devonian to Carboniferous in age. North Korean workers postulated that the Imjin System was deposited in the current geographic position, where the "Imjin Sea" (an extension of the South China Platform) was located during the Devonian. The Imjin System displays strong local variations in stratigraphy and its thickness. It has recently been reported that the strata are repeated and overturned by thrust faults in many exposures. The Yeoncheon Group a southward extension of the Imjin System, also experienced intense tight folding and contractional deformation. Northward decrease in metamorphic grade within the system suggests that the northern part of the Gyeonggi Massif and the Imjingang Belt are probably an extension of the Dabie-Sulu Belt between the South China and Sino-Korean blocks, and the Imjin System is an remnant of accretion resulted from the collision between the two blocks. In order to understand tectonic evolution and Paleozoic paleogeography of eastern Asia, further studies on stratigraphic, sedimentologic and tectonic evolution of the Imjin System involving scientists from the two Koreas are urgently needed.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.271-283
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• 2021

The Imjingang Belt in the middle-western Korean Peninsula has tectonically been correlated with the Permo-Triassic Qinling-Dabie-Sulu collisional belt between the North and South China cratons in terms of collisional tectonics. Within the belt, crustal-scale extensional ductile shear zones that were interpreted to be formed during collapsing stage with thrusts and folds were reported as evidence of collisional events by previous studies. In this study, we tried to understand the nature of deformation along the southern boundary of the belt in the Munsan area based on the interpretations of recently conducted structural analyses. To figure out the realistic geometry of the study area, the down-plunge projection was carried out based on the geometric relationships between structural elements from the detailed field investigation. We also conducted kinematic interpretations based on the observed shear sense indicators from the outcrops and the oriented thin-sections made from the mylonite samples. The prominent structures of the Munsan area are the regional-scale ENE-WSW striking thrust and the N-S trending map-scale folds, both in its hanging wall and footwall areas. Shear sense indicators suggest both eastward and westward vergence, showing opposite directions on each limb of the map-scale folds in the Munsan area. In addition, observed deformed microstructures from the biotite gneiss and the metasyenite of the Munsan area suggest that their deformation conditions are corresponding to the typical mid-crustal plastic deformation of the quartzofeldspathic metamorphic rocks. These microstructural results combined with the macro-scale structural interpretations suggest that the shear zones preserved in the Munsan area is mostly related to the development of the N-S trending map-scale folds that might be formed by flexural folding rather than the previously reported E-W trending crustal-scale extensional ductile shear zone by Permo-Triassic collision. These detailed examinations of the structures preserved in the Imjingang Belt can further contribute to solving the tectonic enigma of the Korean collisional orogen.