• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.347-356
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• 2019

Various studies regarding the sedimentary environment, depositional age, provenance, and metamorphic history have been carried out on the Taean Formation in the western part of Gyeonggi Massif, since the unique detrital zircon age pattern was revealed. This review paper introduces the previous researches on the Taean Formation and discusses the depositional age and provenance. The Taean Formation was traditionally regarded as a Precambrian stratigraphic unit, but recently it is interpreted to be a middle or upper Paleozoic formation due to the occurrence of large amounts of Early to Middle Paleozoic detrital zircons. The Taean Formation consists of metasandstone, argillaceous schist, and phyllite which are mainly made up of quartz and mica. The protoliths are interpreted as turbidites deposited in deep sea fan environment. The Taean Formation has been interpreted to be deposited between the Devonian to Triassic ages given the age differences between detrital zircons and intrusive rocks. There are two opinions that the deposition age is close to the Devonian or the Permian period. The provenance of this formation is supposed to be South China block, Chinese collisional belt, or Gyeonggi Massif. Given the available detrital zircon ages of the Taean Formation and other Korean (meta)sedimentary rocks, the Taean Formation shares major source rocks with Yeoncheon Group and Pibanryeong Unit of the Okcheon Supergroup, but their source regions are not entirely consistent. Considering the existing hypotheses about the depositional timing and provenance, we put weight on the possibility that the Taean Formation was deposited between Permian and Early Triassic periods. However, further studies on the stratigraphy and sedimentary petrology are needed to clarify its definition and to elucidate the provenance.