• The Korean Journal of Petroleum Geology
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• v.7 no.1_2 s.8
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• pp.28-34
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• 1999

The Cretaceous Poongam sedimentary Basin in Kangwon-do, Korea consists alluvial deposits of conglomerates, sandstones, mudstones or siltstones, and volcaniclastics. The Poongam Basin was formed as a fault margin sag or a transpressional basin developed along a strike-slip fault zone, and received huge amount of clastic sediments from the adjacent fault-scaip. It formed an aggrading alluvial fan system and a volcaniclast-supplied marginal lake environment, while tectonic activity and volcanism attenuated toward the end of basin formation. Following the Folk's classification, the sandstones of the Poongam Basin are identified as lithic wackes or feldspathic wackes. The areal and sequential variation of the mineral composition in the sandstones is not distinct. The results of K-Ar age dating from the intruding andesites, volcaniclastics and volcanic fragments in sedimentary rocks show a range of 70 Ma to 84 Ma. It suggests that volcarism occurred sequentially within a relatively short period as the pre-, syn-, and post-depositional events. It was the short period in the late Cretaceous that the basin had evolved i.e., the basin formation, the sediment input and fill, and the , intrusion and extrusion of volcanic rocks occurred. The Poongam sedimentary sequence is a typical tectonic-controlled coarse sedimentary facies which is texturally immature.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.127-141
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• 1978

The major structures characteristic of the Taebaegsan sedimentary basin were regionally analyzed with special reference to its southeastern extension to the Yeonhwa-Ulchin district of economic interest in zinc-lead mineralization. The basin geometry, basement setting, sedimentary components, and the characteristics of deformation and igneous activity of the Taebaegsan basin differ basically from those of the adjacent mobile belt of the Ogcheon geosyncline, although the latter affected the basin's western side considerably. The subrectangular shape of the Taebaegsan basin reflects the checkered pattern of basement-block arrangement, and the carbonate-dominated lithologic components of the basin-fill indicate a cratonic depositional setting, which is comparable to some of the North American mid-continental craton. The Taebaegsan basin, however, has somewhat been less stable than the North American megacraton that is reflected in the former's thicker sedimentary fill and steeper faults of later deformation, showing a tendency to increase in thickness close to the basement-block boundaries, which may indicate contacts of possibly detached cratonic blocks of Precambrian age; these weak zones of block boundaries have been the loci of repeated sedimentation, deformation and related igneous intrusions. A series of downthrown or uplifted tilted blocks, in which the Cambro-Ordovician sedimentary wedges and the late Cretaceous to early Tertiary igneous intrusives are involved, occurs intermittently across the Yeonhwa-Ulchin district in a noticeable pattern of en echelon type. These sedimentary wedges are correlated to the Cambro-Ordovician section of the Hambaeg syncline to the west in stratigraphy and lithology, and are considered to have resulted from the northeastern and/or northwestern cross-faulting of the pre-existing syncline belt of easterly trend, extended from the main portion of the Hambaeg syncline. These structural junctions (or intersections) of the earlier syncline belt and the later cross-faults have been acted as a guide to ascending igneous materials and hydrothermal ore-forming fluids to form a zone of zinc-lead skarn deposits across the Yeonhwa-Ulchin district showing a stepwise recurrence of these deposits toward the east.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.427-448
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• 2019

This study reconstructed the paleoenvironments and paleogeography of the Taebaeksan Basin, through a review of the previous researches on sedimentology, paleontology and stratigraphy. This study also carried out a sequence stratigraphic analysis on regional tectonism and sea-level fluctuations on the basin during the Early Paleozoic. The basin broadly occur in the Taebaek, Yeongweol-Jecheon, Jeongseon-Pyeongchang, and Mungyeong areas, Gangwon province, South Korea. The basin-fills are composed mainly of mixed carbonates and siliciclastics, divided into the Taebaek, Yeongweol, Yongtan, Pyeongchang and Mungyeong groups according to lithologies and stratigraphic characteristics. Recently, there are a lot of studies on the provenance and depositional ages of the siliciclastic sequences of the basin. The detrital sediments of the basin would be derived from two separated provenances of the core-Gondwana and Sino-Korean cratons. In the Early Cambrian, the Taebaek and Jeongseon-Pyeongchang platforms have most likely received detrital sediments from the provenance of the Sino-Korean craton. On the other hand, the detrital sediments of the Yeongweol-Jecheon platform was probably sourced by those of the core-Gondwana craton. This separation of provenance can be interpreted as the result of the paleogeographic and paleotopographic separation of the Yeongweol-Jecheon platform from the Taebaek and Jeongseon-Pyeongchang platforms. The analyses on detrital zircons additionally reveal that the separation of provenance was ceased by the eustatic rise of sea-level during the Middle Cambrian, and the detrital sediments of the Taebaeksan Basin were entirely supplied from those of the core-Gondwana craton. During that period, sediment supply from the Sino-Korean craton would be restricted due to inundation of the provenance area of the craton. On the other hand, the Jeongseon-Pyeongchang platform sequences show the unconformable relationship between the Early Cambrian siliciclastic and the Early Ordovician carbonate strata. It is indicative of presence of regional uplift movements around the platform which would be to the extent offset of the effects of the Middle to Late Cambrian eustatic sealevel rise. These movements expanded and were reinforced across the basin in the latest Cambrian and earliest Ordovician. After the earliest Ordovician, the basin was tectonically stabilized, and the shallow marine carbonate environments were developed on the whole-platform by the Early Ordovician global eustatic sea-level rise, forming very thick carbonate strata in the basin. In the Late Ordovician, the Early Paleozoic sedimentation on the basin was terminated by the large-scale tectonic uplift across the Sino-Korean platform including the Taebaeksan Basin.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.328-336
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• 2007

A piston core (587 cm long) was recovered from the upper slope of a seamount in the Korea Plateau. Three episodes of sedimentation were identified based on sedimentary facies, grain size distribution, carbonate constituents and initial $^{87}Sr/^{86}Sr$ ratio of carbonates. The lower part of the core, Unit I-a (core depth $465{\sim}587cm$) is composed of shallow marine carbonate sediments the deposited by storm surges, and is about $13{\sim}15Ma$ (Middle Miocene) based on $^{87}Sr/^{86}Sr$ initial ratio. This suggests that the depositional environment was relatively shallow enough to be influenced by storm activities. Unit I-b (core depth $431{\sim}465cm$) is mostly composed of turbidites, and Sr isotope ages of bivalves and planktonic formaminifera are about $11{\sim}14\;and\;6{\sim}13Ma$, respectively. This indicates that the Korea Plateau maintained shallow water condition until 11 Ma, and began to subside since then. However, planktonic foraminifera were deposited after 11 Ma and redeposited as turbidites as a mixture of planktonic foraminifera and older shallow marine carbonates about 6 Ma ago. Unit II (core depth $0{\sim}431cm$) is composed of pelagic sediments, and the Sr isotope age is younger than 1 Ma, thus the time gap is about 5 Ma at the unconformity. About 1 Ma ago, the Korea Plateau subsided down to a water depth of about 600 m. The sampling locality was intermittently influenced by debris flows and/or turbidity currents along the slope, resulting the deposition of re-transported coarse shallow marine and volcaniclastic sediments.