• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.637-644
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• 1997

Active young back-arc basin such as Mariana, Havre, Lau, Manus, East Scotia basins have asymmetric topography of two types in respect to the spreading axis. The arc-trench wing of Mariana Trough, Lau basin and Havre Trough are shallower toward the active arc, whereas those Manus and East Scotia basins are nearly symmetric to the opposite wings. The other asymmetry which shows the spreading axis deviated from the geographic axis toward the active arc is observed in each basin. Active young back-arc basins show a large variety of asymmetry rates ranging from the lowest East Scotia Basin to the highest Mariana Trough. The asymmetric topography of these young back-arc basins seems to be caused by the rollback rate of downgoing slab under the basin. As the rollback rate increases, the asymmetry rate systematically decreases.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.367-383
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• 2012

The Gyeongsang Arc is the most notable of the Korea Arc that is composed of several volcanic arcs trending to NE-SW direction in the Korean peninsula. The Hayang Group has many volcanogenic interbeds of lava flows by alkaline or calc-alkaline basaltic volcanisms during early Cretaceous. Late Cretaceous calc-alkaline andesitic and rhyolitic volcanisms reconstructed the Gyeongsang Arc that consist of thick volcanic strata on the Hayang Group in The Gyeongsang Basin. The volcanisms characterize first eruptions of basaltic and andesitic lavas with small pyroclastics, and continue later eruptions of dacitic and rhyolitic ash-fall and voluminous ash-flow with some calderas and then domes and dykes. During the Early Cretaceous (about 120 Ma), oblique subduction of the Izanagi plate to NNW from N direction results in sinistral strike-slip faults to open a pull-apart basin in back-arc area of the Gyeongsang Arc, in which erupted lava flows from generation of magma by a decrease in lithostatic pressure. Therefore the Gyeongsang Basin is interpreted into back-arc basin reconstructed by a continental rifting. Arc volcanism began in about 100 Ma with exaggeration of the back-arc basin in the Gyeongsang, and then changed violently to construct volcanic arcs. During the Late Cretaceous (about 90 Ma), orthogonal subduction of the Izanagi plate to NW from NNW direction ceased development of the basin to prolong violent volcanisms.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.497-506
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• 2015

Gravity variations due to the 2011 Tohoku (M9.0) earthquake, which occurred at the plate boundaries near the northeastern coast of Japan, were estimated through the GRACE spherical harmonic (Stokes) coefficients derived from the CSR. About -5 μGal gravity variation by the GRACE data was found in the back-arc basin area with respect to a reference gravity model. The mean gravity variations in the back-arc basin area and the Japan Trench area were -4.4 and -3.2 μGal in order. The small negative gravity variations around the Japan Trench area can be interpreted by both crustal dilatation and the seafloor topography change in comparison with the large negative gravity variations in the back-arc basin area by co-seismic crustal dilatation of the landward plate. From the results of the gravity variations, vertical displacements generated from relatively short wavelength caused by the earthquake were estimated by use of multi-beam bathymetric measurements obtained from JAMSTEC. The maximum seafloor topography changes of about ±50 m were found at west side of the Japan Trench axis by the earthquake. The seafloor topography change by the megathrust earthquake can be considered as the results of the landslide of the seafloor throughout the landward side.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.481-496
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• 1996

The last Sea is a typical bark-arc basin consisting of basins, plateaus, ridges, and seamounts. The Ulleng Basin, located in the southwestern corner of the last Sea, contains thick Neogene sedimentary sequence. Analysis of over 2,500 km of single-channel seismic reflection data suggests that hemipelagic sedimentation prevailed over much of the basin during the late Miocene and pelagic sedimentation became more dominant during the Pliocene. During the Pleistocene terrigeneous sediments transported by turbidity currents and other gravity flows, together with continuous hemipelagic settling, resulted in well-stratified sedimentary layers. Influx of terrigenous sediments during the Pleistocene formed depocenters in the western and southern parts of the basins. In the Ulleung Interplain Gap, where the Ulleung Basin joins the deeper Japan Basin, sediment waves suggesting bottom current activities are seen.

• Journal of the Korean Geophysical Society
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.249-262
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• 2006

The 29 May 2004 offshore Uljin, Korea earthquake was predominantly thrust-faulting at a depth of approximately 12 (±2) km. The mainshock attained the seismic moment of M0 =5.41 (±1.87)  1016 N m (Mw = 5.1). The focal mechanism indicates a subhorizontal P-axis trending 264° and plunging 2°. The orientation of P- and T-axis is consistent with the direction of absolute plate motion generally observed within the plates, hence the cause of the May 29 shock is the broad-scale stress pattern from the forces acting on the downgoing slab along the Japan trench and inhibiting forces balancing it. The 29 May 2004 earthquake occurred along a deep seated (~12 km), pre-existing feature that is expressed on the surface as the basement escarpment along the western and southern slopes of the Ulleung basin. The concentrated seismicity along this basement escarpment suggests that this feature may qualify as a seismic zone - the Ulleung basement escarpment seismic zone (UBESZ).

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.209-210
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• 2006

The Bismarck Sea represent a unique region in the equatorial western Pacific where one can explore the relationship between tectonic and magmatic processes associated with back-arc opening. The sea, located north of Papua New Guinea and just south of the equator, formed during the final stages of a long, complex geological development of the Melanesian Borderland. The development resulted from the Cenozoic convergence between the Australian and Pacific- Caroline Plates and the opening of back-arc basins. At present, the Bismarck Sea straddles two oppositely facing trenches, the inactive Manus trench and the active New Britain trench, and covers two basins, the New Guinea Basin (NGB) to the west and the Manus Basin (MB) to the east. The two basins are separated by the shallow Willaumez-Manus Rise (WMR), which trends roughly from WNW to ESE. The origin of these major structural units and their relationship with the presentday zone of major seismicity along the Bismarck Sea Seismic Lineation (BSSL) remains unclear and is the main focus of our study.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.559-564
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• 1997

The New Hebrides Basin is an inactive non back-arc basin located at the convergent boundary of the Pacific and Info-Australian plates. This basin was formed from 46 Ma to 60 Ma. The basin has two spreading episodes with rates of 34 mm/a for 42 to 47 Ma and 17 mm/a for 47 to 60 Ma. The sediments covered in the basin has uniform thickness of 0.65 sec. The age-depth correlation curve of the New Hebrides Basin can be represented by the following equation: $Depth(m)=2689+312\sqrt{Age}(Ma)$ The coefficient of 312 in this equation is close to that for major oceans, 350. This suggests that the cooling processes of the lithospheres in the New Hebrides Basin and major oceans are similar to each other. Free-air gravity anomalies of the basin varying from -22.3 mgal to +59.0 mgal. The mean value is +30.2 mgal higher than those of the normal oceans. Moderately large free-air gravity anomalies in the New Hebrides Basin are presumably owing to its location on a marginal swell along the New Hebrides Trench. It is generally observed that the ocean floor is very gently uplifted in a zone about 200 km oceanward of the trench axis. Positive free-air gravity anomalies amounting to $50{\sim}60$ mgal are usually observed on the crest of the swell. This topography is presumably by bending of the oceanic lithosphere so as to dynamically maintain nonisostatic states for some duration.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.499-505
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• 1993

The Imgye hornblendites occur as intrusive sills or dykes within the mylonite zone developed along the contact boundary between Precambrian Jungbongsan granite and Cambrian Jangsan quartzite or Myobong slate formations. The hornlendites belong to the subalkaline and tholeiitic series. In tectonomagmatic discrimination diagrams such as $TiO_2-K_2O-P_2O_5$, 2Nb-Zr/4-Y and $TiO_2-10MnO-10P_2O_5$, the hornblendites are classified into continental- and island-arc tholeiites. The hornblendites show fractionated REE patterns with $(La/Yb)_{CN}$ ranging from 3.73-4.56. In incompatible element abundance variations, the hornblendites show distinctive positive and negative anomalies for Rb and Nb, respectively, and unfractionated patterns of immobile incompatible elements such as Y and Yb. The REE patterns of the hornblendites are also similar to those of typical continental back-arc tholeiites and those of the Precambrian Okbang amphibolites in the Socheon-meon, Bonghwa-gun. Accoiding to geochemical characteristics above-mentioned, the hornblendites seem to have been formed from tholeiitic magmas of depleted upper mantle source, contaminated by crustal material en route to continental back-arc basin.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.90-101
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• 2009

Analysis of multi-channel seismic reflection data from the Southern Ulleung Basin reveals that Plio-Quaternary section in the area consists of nine stacked sedimentary units separated by erosional unconformities. On the southern slope, these sedimentary units are acoustically characterized by chaotic seismic facies without distinct internal reflections, interpreted as debris-flow bodies. Toward the basin floor, the sedimentary units are defined by well-stratified facies with good continuity and strong amplitude, interpreted as turbidite/hemipelagic sediments. The seismic facies distribution suggests that deposition of Plio-Quaternary section in the area was controlled mainly by tectonic movement and sea-level fluctuations. During the Pliocene, sedimentation was mainly controlled by tectonic movements related to the back-arc closure of the East Sea. The back-arc closure that began in the Miocene caused compressional deformation along the southern margin of the Ulleung Basin, resulting in regional uplift which continued until the Pliocene. Large amounts of sediments, eroded from the uplifted crustal blocks, were supplied to the basin, depositing Unit 1 which consists of debris-flow deposits. During the Quaternary, sea-level fluctuations resulted in stacked sedimentary units (2-9) consisting of debris-flow deposits, formed during sea-level fall and lowstands, and thin hemipelagic/turbidite sediments, deposited during sea-level rise and highstands.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.38 no.6 s.175
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• pp.643-656
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• 2005

The East Sea, a marginal sea or back-arc basin, consists of Japan Basin, Yamato Basin, and Ulleung Basin and is surrounded by the Pacific Plate and Philippine Sea Plate. Ulleung Basin locates in the southwestern part of the East Sea and shows the depth of 1,500 m in average and 2,500 m in maximum, connecting to the Japan Basin along 2,000 m contour. The slope of the seafloor is greater in the western side of the basin than in the southern and the eastern side. The crustal thickness of the Ulleung Basin from the OBS tends to get thicker toward the north and the west side and the sediment thickness of the Ulleung Basin is getting thicker toward the southeast side and reaches up to 12 km. The crustal type of the Ulleung Basin was variously suggested as like as a rifted continental crust, an extended continental crust, and an incipient oceanic trust. The origin of the crustal formation and the Ulleung Basin, however, is still controversial. Based on the bathymetry and gravtiy anomaly data for this study, the axis of the Ulleung Basin shows that the basin develops along the axis trending NW-SE direction and reveals a general symmetry of the bathymetry. And also the free-air gravity anomalies show a very similar pattern to the bathymetry of the basin. The sediment thickness is relatively thicker in the southeastern side of the basin than in the northwestern side. Although the crustal age of the Ulleung Basin is supposed to be younger than them of the Japan Basin and the Yamato Basin, the free-air gravity anomalies of the Ulleung Basin ranging -40 to 50 mGals are lower than the other basins, which suggests that the densities of crust and sediment of the Ulleng Basin are lower than the Japan Basin and the Yamato Basin.