• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.625-635
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• 1997

A back projection algorithm is applied to 216 Pn travel time measurements to image lateral variations of compressional velocity in the uppermost mantle in the Korean Peninsula. We obtained an average P-velocity value for the uppermost mantle of $7.90{\pm}0.18km/sec$, and an average mantle P-velocity gradient of $5.3{\times}10^{-3}s^{-1}$ for the Korean Peninsula. The final 3-D velocity image in the uppermost mantle is characterized by a low-velocity (about $7.77{\pm}0.12km/sec$) region in the southeast area of the Korean peninsula, which is called 'Kyongsang Basin' and by high-velocity(${\geq}8.08km/sec$) region in the northern area of the Korean Peninsula(Hamkyong and Pyongan provinces). The crustal thicknesses are calculated for the 10 subregions. The crustal thickness of the northern part(${\geq}39^{\circ}N$) of the Korean Peninsula is 33.0-36.0 km, on the contrary, that of the southern part(< $39^{\circ}N$) is 30.7~33.7 km. The velocity image obtained in this study is somewhat consistent with previous S-P travel time studies and gravity studies.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.537-545
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• 2000

Shipborne gravity data are analyzed to investigate crustal structure under Dok Island and its surrounding seamounts located in border of Ulleung Basin and Oki Bank in the East Sea. Relatively low free-air gravity anomaly compared with the volume of seamounts may be explainable by isostatic compensation. From 1 st to 3rd Dokdo Seamounts, the decrease of free-air and Bouguer gravity anomalies implies the different degree of isostatic compensation, crustal thickness or/and density contrast. 3-D gravity modelling shows that seamounts have the mirror roots for regional Airy isostatic compensation, and from Ulleung Basin to Oki Bank, Moho discontinuity deepens and the density of crust is decreases. The results infer that study area is transitional zone from thin oceanic to thick continental crust. The depth of Moho discontinuity is about 15∼16 km, which may be interpreted as an uplifting of Mantle to shallow depth comparing with other borders of the Ulleung Basin.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.493-502
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• 2011

We study the deep structure of Korean Peninsula by estimating Moho depth and crustal thickness from using land and oceanic topography and free-air gravity anomaly data. Based on Airy-Heiskanen isostatic hypothesis, the correlated components between the terrain gravity effects and free-air gravity anomalies by wavenumber correlation analysis(WCA) are extracted to estimate the gravity effects that will be resulted from isostatic compensation for the area. With the resulting compensated gravity estimates, Moho depth that is a subsurface between the crust and mantle is estimated by the inversion in an iterative method with the constraints of 20 seismic depth estimates by the receiver function analysis, to minimize the uncertainty of non-uniqueness. Consequently, the average of the resulting crustal thickness estimate of Korean Peninsula is 32.15 km and the standard deviation is 3.12 km. Moho depth of South Korea estimated from this study is compared with the ones from the previous studies, showing they are approximately consistent. And the aspects of Moho undulation from the respective study are in common deep along Taebaek Mountains and Sobaek Mountains and low depth in Gyeongsang Basin relatively. Also, it is discussed that the terrain decorrelated free-air gravity anomalies inferring from the intracrustal characteristics of the crust are compared to the heat flow distributions of South Korea. The low-frequency components of terrain decorrelated Free-air gravity anomalies are highly correlated with the heat flow data, especially in the area of Gyeongsang basin where high heat flow causes to decrease the density of the rocks in the lower crust resulting in lowering the Moho depth by compensation. This result confirms that the high heat sources in this area coming from the upper mantle by Kim et al. (2008).

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.127-139
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• 1998

A new technique of simultaneous inversion for 3-D seismic velocity structure by using direct, reflected, and refracted waves is applied to the southeast part of the Korean Peninsula including Pohang Basin, Kyongsang Basin and Ryongnam Massif. Pg, Sg, PmP, SmS, Pn, and Sn arrival times of 44 events with 554 seismic rays are inverted for locations and crustal structure. $6{\times}6$ with $0.5^{\circ}$ and 8 layers (4 km each layer) model was inverted. 3-D seismic crustal velocity tomography including eight sections from surface to Moho, ten profiles along latitude and longitude are analyzed. The results are as follows: 1) the average velocity and thickness of sediment are 5.04 km/s and 3-4 km, and the velocity of basement is 6.11 km/s. The shape of velocity in shallower layer is agreement with Bouguer gravity anomaly (Cho et al., 1997). 2) the velocities fluctuate strongly in the upper crust. The velocity distribution of the lower crust under Conrad appears basically horizontal. 3) the average depth of Moho is 30.4 km, and velocity is 8.01 km/s. 4) from the velocity and depth of the sediment, the thickness, velocity and form of the upper crust, and the depth and form of Moho, we can find the obvious differences among Ryongnam Massif, Kyongsang Basin and Pohang Basin. 5) the deep faults (a Ulsan series faults) near Kyongju and Pohang areas can be found to be normal and/or thrust faults with detachment extended to the bottom of the upper crust.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.323-337
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• 1999

Late Cretaceous to early Tertiary volcanic rocks in the Kyongsang basin exhibit high-K calc-alkaline characteristics, and originated from the magmatism related genetically to subduction of Kula-Pacific plate. They represent HFSE depletion and LlLE enrichment characteristics as shown by magmas related to subduction. Early studies on the depth of magma generation has been estimated as 180-230 km based on K-h relation should be reevaluated, because the depth of peridotite partial melting with 0.4 wt. % water is 80-120 km at subduction zone, and subducting slab in premature arc can melted even lower than 70 km. Moreover the increase of potassium contents depends on either contamination of crustal material and fluids of subducting slab or low degree of partial melting. If the inclination of subduction zone is 30 degrees and the depth to the Benioff zone is 180-230 km, the calculated distance between the volcanic zone and trench axis would be 310-400 km. It is unlikely because the distance between the Kyongsang basin and trench during late Cretaceous to early Tertiary is closer than this value and not comparable with generally-accepted models in subduction zone magmatism. $K_{55}$ of the volcanics in the Kyongsang basin is 0.3-2.3 wt.% and the average indicate that the depth ranges between 80-170 km on the diagram of Marsh, Carmichael (1974). Fractionation from garnet lherzolite, assumed the depth of 180-230km, is not consistent with the REE patterns of the volcanoes in the Kyongsang basin. Futhermore, the range of depth suggested by many workers, who studied magmatism related to subduction, imply shallower than this depth. Crustal thickness calculated by the content of CaO and $Na_2O$ is about 30 km and about 35 km, respectively. Paleo-crustal thickness during late Cretaceous to early Tertiary times in the Kyongsang basin inferred about 30 km calculated by La/Sm versus LaJYb data, which is also supported by many previous studies.

• Journal of the Korean Geophysical Society
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.273-286
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• 2006

The Kyongsang Basin is the most representative Cretaceous basin in the Korean Peninsula where extensive crustal deformation and non-marine sedimentation took place in the early Cretaceous period. The lithology of the basement of the basin and adjacent areas is comprised of mainly Precambrian gneiss complex and Mesozoic granite intrusions. We have carried out magnetotelluric (MT) surveys to investigate the deep geoelectric structure around the Kyongsang Basin. The MT data were collected in the frequency range from 0.00042 to 320 Hz at 24 sites along a profile across the northern part of Kyongsang Basin. The results of MT inversion show that the thickness of sediments is estimated about 3 km to 9 km and the depth to base of granite intrusion is about 20 km. A remarkable discovery in this study is the highly conductive layer beneath the basin, having the resistivity of 1 ohm-m to 30 ohm-m and the thickness of about 3 km to 4 km or more. Although we are not able to reveal the nature of this layer, the result of this study could provide some basic information with respect to the formation process and deposit environment of the proto-Kyongsang Basin.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.256-267
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• 2010

Earthquakes in the Korean Peninsula occur along the faults formed and boundaries between major geological units ruptured due to violent tectonic activities during the Mesozoic. E-W and/or ENE-SSW compressive stress regime resulting from collisions between the Eurasian plate and neighbouring the Indian plate, the Pacific plate and the Philippine plate trigger Korean earthquakes of thrust faulting with predominant strike-slip components along the mostly NNE-SSW trending active faults. Seismicity of the Korean peninsula has been moderate to low during the past 20 centuries except for the period from the 15th to the 18th centuries of exceptionally high seismicity, showing the typical irregularity of intraplate seismicity. The structure of the Korean peninsula is rather homogeneous without the Conrad discontinuity sharply dividing the upper and lower crust. Lateral heterogeneities exist in the crust. The crust with an average thickness of about 33 km is thicker in the mountainous region than the plain due to the Airy-type isostatic equilibrium maintained in the peninsula. Crustal P-wave velocity with average of about 6.3 km/sec increases gradually from the near surface to the Moho. The upper mantle P-wave (Pn) velocity is about 7.8 km/sec.

• Journal of the Korean Geophysical Society
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.9-26
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• 1999

The Ulleung Basin (Tsushima Basin) in the southwestern East Sea (Japan Sea) is floored by a crust whose affinity is not known whether oceanic or thinned continental. This ambiguity resulted in unconstrained mechanisms of basin evolution. The present work attempts to define the nature of the crust of the Ulleung Basin and its tectonic evolution using seismic wide-angle reflection and refraction data recorded on ocean bottom seismometers (OBSs). Although the thickness of (10 km) of the crust is greater than typical oceanic crust, tau-p analysis of OBS data and forward modeling by 2-D ray tracing suggest that it is oceanic in character: (1) the crust consists of laterally consistent upper and lower layers that are typical of oceanic layers 2 and 3 in seismic velocity and gradient distribution and (2) layer 2C, the transition between layer 2 and layer 3 in oceanic crust, is manifested by a continuous velocity increase from 5.7 to 6.3 km/s over the thickness interval of about 1 km between the upper and lower layers. Therefore it is not likely that the Ulleung Basin was formed by the crustal extension of the southwestern Japan Arc where crustal structure is typically continental. Instead, the thickness of the crust and its velocity structure suggest that the Ulleung Basin was formed by seafloor spreading in a region of hotter than normal mantle surrounding a distant mantle plume, not directly above the core of the plume. It seems that the mantle plume was located in northeast China. This suggestion is consistent with geochemical data that indicate the influence of a mantle plume on the production of volcanic rocks in and around the Ulleung Basin. Thus we propose that the opening models of the southwestern East Sea should incorporate seafloor spreading and the influence of a mantle plume rather than the extension of the crust of the Japan Arc.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.61-75
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• 2000

Through modeling fault network using thin plate finite element technique in the San Andreas Fault system with slip rate over 1mm/year, as well as elevation, heat flow, earthquakes, geodetic data and crustal thickness, we compare the results with velocity boundary conditions of plate based on the NUVEL-1 plate model and the approximation of deformation in the Great Basin region. The frictional and dislocation creep constants of the crust are calculated to reproduce the observed variations in the maximum depth of seismicity which corresponds to the temperature ranging from $350^{\circ}C$ to $410^{\circ}C$. The rheologic constants are defined by the coefficient of friction on faults, and the apparent activation energy for creep in the lower crust. Two parameters above represent systematic variations in three experiments. The pattern of model indicates that the friction coefficient of major faults is 0.17~0.25. we test whether the weakness of faults is uniform or proportional to net slip. The geologic data show a good agreement when fault weakness is a trend of an additional 30% slip dependent weakening of the San Andreas. The results of study suggest that all weakening is slip dependent. The best models can be explained by the available data with RMS mismatch of as little as 3mm/year, so their predictions can be closely related with seismic hazard estimation, at least along faults where no data are available.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.10-20
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• 1996

The increament of crustal thickness, continental growth and evolution, plate tectonic movements, and mega-impacts of meteorites have been worldwidely studied in the subdivision of Precambrian. In many subdivision methods of Precambrian Eon and Eonthem, the division based on the principle of the Plate tctonic movement referred internationally, is as follows, $L^AT_EX$ The rationality of this subdivision and some problems in the currently adopted stratigraphic subdivision of Precambrian Eonthem will by commented, and the validity of English and Korean Geological terminology on the Precambrian stratigraphy of northeastern Asia will be discussed also.