• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.169-193
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• 2016

In order to characterize the Neotectonic crustal deformation and current stress field in and around the Korean Peninsula and to interpret their tectonic implications, this paper synthetically analyzes the previous Quaternary fault and focal mechanism solution data and recent geotechnical in-situ stress data and examines the characteristics of crustal deformations and tectonic settings in and around East Asia after the Miocene. Most of the Quaternary fault outcrops in SE Korea occur along major inherited fault zones and show a NS-striking top-to-the-west thrust geometry, indicating that the faults were produced by local reactivation of appropriately oriented preexisting weaknesses under EW-trending pure compressional stress field. The focal mechanism solutions in and around the Korean Peninsula disclose that strike-slip faulting containing some reverse-slip component and reverse-slip faulting are significantly dominant on land and in sea area, respectively. The P-axes are horizontally clustered in ENE-WSW direction, whereas the T-axes are girdle-distributed in NNW direction. The geotechnical in-situ stress data in South Korea also indicate the ENE-trending maximum horizontal stress. The current crustal deformation in the Korean Peninsula is thus characterized by crustal contraction under regional ENE-WSW or E-W compression stress field. Based on the regional stress trajectories in and around East Asia, the current stress regime is interpreted to have resulted from the cooperation of westward shallow subduction of the Pacific Plate and collision of Indian and Eurasian continents, whereas the Philippine Sea plate have not a decisive effect on the stress-regime in the Korean Peninsula due to its high-angle subduction that resulted in dominant crust extension of the back-arc region. It is also interpreted that the Neotectonic crustal deformation and present-day tectonic setting of East Asia commenced with the change of the Pacific Plate motion during 5~3.2 Ma.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.171-180
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• 2015

Regarding the tropical cyclone (TC) genesis frequency, TCs between 1999 and 2013 were generated more frequently in the northwest waters of the tropical- and subtropical western North Pacific than TCs between 1977 and 1998. TCs over the period from 1977-1998 showed a northward track trend generated mostly from the distant sea in east of the Philippines via the mainland of the Philippines and the South China Sea to the west toward Indochina or from the distant sea in east of the Philippines to the distance sea in east of Japan. TCS over the period from 1999-2013 showed a northward shift pattern to the mid-latitude region mostly in East Asia. Therefore, TCs over the period from 1999-2013 tended to move to much higher latitudes than TCs over the period from 1977-1998, which also resulted in the high possibility of maximum TC intensity occurred in higher latitudes during the former period than the latter period. In the difference of 500 hPa streamline between two periods, the anomalous anticyclonic circulations were strengthened in $30-50^{\circ}N$ whereas the anomalous monsoon trough was placed in north of the South China Sea, which was extended to the east up to $145^{\circ}E$. The mid-latitude in East Asia is affected by the anomalous southeasterlies due to the above anomalous anticyclonic circulations and anomalous monsoon trough. The anomalous southeasterlies play a role in anomalous steering flows that directed TCs to the mid-latitude regions in East Asia, which made the latitudes of the maximum intensities in TCs over the period from 1999 - 2013 further to the north than those in TCs over the period from 1977-1998.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.230-249
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• 2000

Southeastern Korean Peninsula has undergone the polyphase deformations according to the changes of regional tectonic settings during the Cenozoic. Through analyses of more than 600 fault-slip data gathered in the study area, five tectonic events are revealed as the followings: (I) NW-SE transtension, (II) NW-SE transpression, (III) NE-SW pure or radial extension, (IV) NNE-SSW transpression, (V) NE or ENE-WSW transpression. Event I was induced by the pull-apart type extension of the East Sea during 24-16 Ma, which resulted in the NW-SE extension of the Tertiary Basins in SE Korea. Event II was resulted from the collision of SW Japan and Izu-Bonnin Arc (or Kuroshio Paleoland) on the Philippine Sea Plate at ${\sim}$ 15 Ma, which stopped the extension of the Tertiary Basins and originated the uplift of fault blocks in and around SE Korean Peninsula. It was continued until ${\sim}$ 10 Ma. Event III is interpreted as the post-tectonic event after the block-uplifts due to the event II, which indicates a temporal lull in activity of the Philippine Sea Plate since 10 Ma. Event IV was originated from the resumption in activity of the Philippine Sea Plate which was restarted to move toward north at ${\sim}$ 6 Ma. The event made the EW compressional structures behind SW Japan as well as in the Korea Straits, and thus the block-uplifts in SE Korea was resumed again. Lastly, event V was resulted from the gradual decrease in influence of the Philippine Sea Plate and the cooperative compression due to the subduction of the Pacific Sea Plate and the collision of the Indian Plate since 5-3.5 Ma, which generated the NS compressional structures in the offshore along the eastern coast of the Korean Peninsula and thrust up the fault-blocks toward west. This event is continuing so far, and thus is making the active faultings resulting in the present earthquakes of the Korean Peninsula.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.14 no.2 s.40
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• pp.93-107
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• 2005

We determined $^{40}Ar/^{39}Ar$ ages of the Tertiary dike swarms and volcanic rocks distributed in the SE Korea where the most prevalent crustal-deformation and volcanism occurred during the period. In previous study, it was disclosed that the mafic dike swarms on both sides (east and west) of the Yeonil Tectonic Line (YTL) were originated from a same magma although they are consistently aligned with different intrusion directions of NS and NE, respectively. Ages of the mafic dike swarms of this study are $47.3\pm0.8Ma$ and $48.0\pm1.3Ma$, respectively and confirm such conclusion. These facts clarify that the YTL acted as a westernmost limit of the crustal deformation, especially clockwise crust-rotation, during the Miocene. Frequent occurrence of basic dikes indicate strongly that the southeastern part of the Korean Peninsula was under E-W extensional stress field at about 48 Ma, intimately related to the India-Asia collision and subsequent sudden change of the Pacific Plate motion. The ages of the uncommonly appearing intermediate and felsic dikes were determined as $55.9\pm1.5Ma$ and $53.0\pm1.0Ma$, respectively. Ages of the andesitic lava of the Hyodongri Volcanics, the dacitic lava of the Yongdongri Tuff, and dacitic rocks intruding and covering the Churyeong Breccia were determined as $24.0\pm0.5Ma,\;21.6\pm0.4Ma$, $21.8\pm0.1Ma,\;and\;22.0\pm0.5Ma$ respectively. The ages from the volcanics agrees well with the stratigraphy established by the latest field survey, which confirms that the $andesitic\~dacitic$ volcanism was followed by the basaltic volcanism during the Early Miocene.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 1972

Studies on the circulation and water masses in the continental shelf break region of the East China Sea are Summerized as follows : 1. The main stream of the Kuroshio flowing north-east near $29^{\circ}N\;Lat\;127^{\circ}E$ tong of the East China Sea in summer is narrow in width. Moving toward east, it becomes twice as wide in Tokora Strait, Japan. 2. In the main stream area of the Kuroshio, the surface Waters in the Upper layer (0-250m) are influenced by the coastal waters of China, and the counter current submerges under the surface water. Therefore, the mixing waters are found in its intermediate layer. 3. Water mass between Amami Island and the continental shelf of the East China Sea consists of main stream water, counter current water, gyration water and mixed water with coastal waters. 4. The maximum velocity of current in this waters was 139cm/sec. The volume transport was estimated approximately as $24.2\;\times\;10^6m^3/sec$. It was less than $33\;\times\;10^6m^3/sec$ in the region between Okinawa and continental shelf of the East China Sea. 5. Surface waters east of $29^{\circ}N\;Lat\;128^{\circ}E$ Long flows toward Amami Island, Okinawa Island, and Hachi Ju San Island, while those west of the region flow toward the Korea-strait, Cheju Island, coastal waters of Kyusyu, and the Pacific Ocean through Tokora Strait. The velocity of the current was estimated approximately as $0.3\~0.5$ miles per hour. 6. The bottom waters in the continental shelf break region flow toward the Korea Strait, Cheju Island and the coastal water of Kyusyu, while that of the continental shelf flows toward the Yellow Sea, 7, The characteristics of the Kuroshio water is changed remarkably by the mixing with the coastal water of China.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.13-26
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• 2001

Six ferromanganese crusts from the Lomilik and Litatfooki seamounts in the Marshall Islands were analyzed for texture, geochemistry and stratigraphy to delineate the paleoceanographic conditions. The crusts can be divided into three layers; 1) outermost massive layer (Layer 1), 2) middle porous Fe-oxides rich layer infllled with biointemal clasts (Layer 2), and 3) innermost massive layer cemented and/or replaced by carbonate fluoapatite (CFA) (Layer 3). The Layer 1 contains higher Mn, Co, Ni, and Mg than other two layers, and the Layer 2 was relatively more enriched in Fe, Al, Ti, Ba, Cu, and Zn. However, the Layer 3 shows higher Ca and P and lower Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni contents than overlying two layers. Based on the Co-chronometry, the crusts are postulated to have begun to grow from 56-31 Ma (early Eocene to Oligocene). The boundaries between layers 1 and 2, and layers 2 and 3 are dated to be 7-3 Ma and 26-14 Ma, respectively. High contents of Ca and P in Layer 3 clearly indicate that the layer had been phosphatized prior to the formation of Layer 2. Considering the well-preserved mjcrostructures in Layer 3, it is unlike that the crusts themselves were recrystallized in suboxic condition. Also, the lower Co concentrations in Layer 3 may imply that the Co supply was not constant during the formation of Layer 3. Layer 2, characterized by the porous texture, grew over Layer 3 during 26-9 Ma. Internal biogenic sediments including foraminifera within the original cavities and the enrichment of organophillic elements such as Ba, Cu, and Zn, suggest that Layer 2 have below high production regions. Also, high content of allumino silicate components may indicate increased terrigeneous input during the formation of Layer 2. The Layer 2. The Layer 1 has been subjected to little diagenetic influence since the Pliocene.