• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.235-258
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• 2022

We interpreted the evolutionary history of the southwestern part of the Pohang Basin, the largest Miocene basin in the southeastern part of the Korean Peninsula, based on the detailed geological mapping and analysis of the geological structures. The southwestern part of the Pohang Basin can be divided into the Bomun Domain in the west and Ocheon Domain in the east by an NNE-trending horst-in-graben. These two domains have different geometries and deformation histories. The Bomun Domain was rarely deformed after the incipient extension of the basin, whereas the Ocheon Domain is an area where continued and overlapped deformations occurred after the basin fill deposition. Therefore, the Bomun Domain provides critical information on the initial extension mode of the Pohang Basin. The subsidence of the Bomun Domain was led by the zigzag-shaped western border fault that consists of NNE-striking normal and NNW-striking dextral strike-slip fault segments. This border fault is connected to the Yeonil Tectonic Line (YTL), a regional dextral principal displacement zone and the westernmost limit of Miocene crustal deformation in SE Korea. Therefore, it is interpreted that the Pohang Basin was initially extended in WNW-ESE direction as a transtensional fault-termination basin resulting from the movement of NNE-striking normal and/or oblique-slip faults formed as right-stepover in the northern termination of the YTL activated since approximately 17-16.5 Ma. As a result, an NNE-trending asymmetric graben or half-graben exhibiting an westward deepening of basin depth was formed in the Bomun Domain. Afterward, crustal extension and deformation were migrated to the east, including the Ocheon Domain.