• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.395-407
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• 2019

The duplex system has been considered as an important slip-transfer mechanism to evaluate the evolution of orogenic belts. Duplexes are generally found in the hinterland portion of fold-thrust belts and accommodate large amounts of total shortening. Thus, understanding its geometric and kinematic evolution can give information to evaluate the evolution of the entire orogenic belt. Duplexes are recognized as closed-loop thrust traces on map view, indicating higher connectivity than imbricate fans. As originally defined, a duplex is an array of thrust horses which are surrounded by thrust faults including the floor and roof thrusts, and imbricate faults between them. Duplexes can accommodate regional layer-parallel shortening and transfer slip from a floor thrust to a roof thrust. However, an imbricate fault is not the only mean for layer-parallel shortening (LPS) and displacement transfer within duplexes. LPS cleavages and detachment folds can also play the same role. From this aspect, a duplex can be divided into three types; 1) fault duplex, 2) cleavage duplex and 3) fold duplex. Fault duplex can further be subdivided into the Boyer-type duplex, which was firstly designed duplex system in the 1980s that widely applied most of the major fold-thrust belts in the world, and connecting splay duplex, which has different time order in the emplacement of horses from those of the Boyer-type. On the contrary, the cleavage and fold duplexes are newly defined types based on some selected examples. In the Korean Peninsula, the Yeongwol area, the western part of the Taebaeksan Zone of the Okcheon Belt, gives an excellent natural laboratory to study the structural geometry and kinematics of the closed-loops by thrust fault traces in terms of a duplex system. In the previous study, the Yeongwol thrust system was interpreted by alternative duplex models; a Boyer-type hinterland-dipping duplex vs. a combination of major imbricate thrusts and their connecting splays. Although the high angled beds and thrusts as well as different stratigraphic packages within the horses of the Yeongwol duplex system may prefer the later complicate model, currently, we cannot choose one simple answer between the models because of the lack of direct field evidence and time information. Therefore, further researches on the structural field investigations and geochronological analyses in the Yeongwol and adjacent areas should be carried out to test the possibility of applying the fold and cleavage duplex models to the Yeongwol thrust system, and it will eventually provide clues to solve the enigma of formation and its evolution of the Okcheon Belt.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.385-396
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• 2023

The Mesozoic Bansong Group, distributed along the NE-SW thrust fault zone of the Okcheon Fold Belt in the Danyang-Yeongwol-Jeongseon areas, contains important information on the two Mosozoic orogenic cycles in the Koran Peninsula, the Permian-Triassic Songrim Orogeny and the Jurassic Daebo Orogeny. This study aims to review previous studies on the stratigraphy, depositional period, and basin evolution of the Bansong Group and to suggest future research directions. The perspective on the implication of the Bansong Group in the context of the tectonic evolution of the Korean Peninsula is largely divided into two points of view. The traditional view assumes that it was deposited as a product of the post-collisional Songrim Orogeny and then subsequently deformed by the Daebo Orogeny. This interpretation is based on the stratigraphic, paleontologic, and structural geologic research carried out in the Danyang Coalfield area. On the other hand, recent research regards the Bansong Group as a product of syn-orogenic sedimentation during the Daebo Orogeny. This alternative view is based on the zircon U-Pb ages of pyroclastic rocks distributed in the Yeongwol area and their structural position. However, both models cannot comprehensively explain the paleontological and geochronological data derived from Bansong Group sediments. This suggests the need for a new basin evolution model integrated from multidisciplinary data obtained through sedimentology, structural geology, geochronology, petrology, and geochemistry studies.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.541-554
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• 2019

The Taebaeksan Zone of the Okcheon Belt is a prominent fold-thrust belt, preserving evidence for overlapped polyphase and diachronous orogenic events during crustal evolution of the Korean Peninsula. The Pyeongchang-Jeongseon area of the northwestern Taebaeksan Zone is fault-bounded on the western Jucheon and southern Yeongwol areas, showing lateral variations in stratigraphy and structural geometries. For better understanding these geological characteristics of the northwestern Taebaeksan Zone, we have studied the structural geometry of the Pyeongchang-Jeongseon area. For this, we have firstly carried out the SHRIMP U-Pb age analysis of the age-unknown sedimentary rock to clarify stratigraphy for structural interpretation. The results show the late Carboniferous to middle Permian dates, indicating that it is correlated to the Upper Paleozoic Pyeongan Supergroup. In addition to this, we interpreted the geometric relationships between structural elements from the detailed field investigation of the study area. The major structure of the northwestern Taebaeksan Zone is the regional-scale Jeongseon Great syncline, having NE-trending hinge with second-order folds such as the Jidongri and Imhari anticlines and the Nambyeongsan syncline. Based on the stereographic and down-plunge projections of the structureal elements, the structural geometry of the Jeongseon Great syncline can be interpreted as a synformal culmination, plunging slightly to the south at its southern area, and north at the northern area. The different map patterns of the northern and southern parts of the study area should be resulted in different erosion levels caused by the plunging hinges. Considering the Jeongseon Great syncline is the major structure that constrains the distribution of the Paleozoic strata of the Pyeongchang and Jeongseon areas, the symmetric repetition of the lower Paleozoic Joseon Supergroup in both limbs should be re-examined by structural mapping of the Hangmae and Hoedongri formations in the Pyeongchang and Jeongseon areas.