• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.543-554
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• 2004

Analysis of multi-channel seismic reflection and well data serves to detail the structural evolution of the northern Okinawa Trough, southern offshore Korea. The overall structural style of the area is characterized by a series of half grabens and tilted fault blocks bounded by basement-involved listric normal faults. Most half grabens and tilted fault blocks developed in the direction of NNE-SSW, parallel to the axis of the Okinawa Trough. Orientation and distribution of the listric faults also suggest the development of transfer faults in NW-SE direction. The rifting phase of the northern Okinawa Trough have been established on the basis of structural and stratigraphic analyses of depositional sequences and their seismic expressions. Major phase of rifting probably started in the Late Miocene and the most active rifting occurred during the Early Pliocene. The rifting produced a series of half grabens and tilted fault blocks bounded by listric normal faults. It appears that the rifting activity has become weaker since the Late Pliocene, but the Pleistocene sediments faulted by listric faults bounding tilted fault blocks suggest that the rifting activity is probably still in progress.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.397-409
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• 2018

Izumi sedimentary basin (ISB), west of Shikoku, Japan, is widely distributed across the western side of the Sakuragi Bend of the Japan Median Tectonic Line (MTL). It is not obvious how the ISB formed, but this feature is similar to an asymmetric pull-apart basin. The stratigraphic succession and tuff layers show that ages tend to decrease toward the Sakuragi Bend. We investigate whether the ISB is an asymmetric pull-apart basin using analogue model experiments with running sand. A pull-apart basin of length 60 cm and width 20 cm is formed, and secondary normal faults appear on the surrounding surface. A cross-section parallel to the direction of displacement shows that the stratigraphic succession of the pull-apart basin becomes younger toward the releasing bend. A listric normal fault, which has the opposite dip to the master fault, is observed in a cross-section perpendicular to the direction of displacement. These results are consistent with the observed properties of the ISB west of Shikoku, thereby supporting the possibility that the ISB is an asymmetric pull-apart basin.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.407-415
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• 2010

MT soundings were carried out in 2008, in northern Victoria, Australia, as a continuing collaboration research of 2007 between Republic of Korea, Australia, and Japan. The main purpose of this research is to investigate electrical conductivity structure and thus help understanding of tectonic structure in central Victoria, which is believed to be closely linked to mineralization and magmatic processes of this region. The survey area is located in western Lachlan Fold Belts, which is the part of Tasman Fold Belts in southeastern Australia. An MT profile of 2008 is almost parallel to the one of 2007 and approximately 50 km away. The 2D inversion result of MT data also shows that the position of conductivity discontinuity near surface are well matched with the positions of major faults, such as Avoca Fault, which is the structural boundary between Stawell and Bendigo Zones, and Heathcote Fault Zone, which marks the boundary between Bendigo and Melbourne Zones. It is also confirmed from resistivity image that internal faults in Bendigo Zone are in listric form, which is implied to be formed by structural shortening during compressional orogenic activity in Silurian.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.491-499
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• 2003

The Okinawa Trough is a rift basin formed by extension. Analysis of multichannel seismic reflection profiles from the northwestern margin of the northern Okinawa Trough reveal that the trough is characterized by a series of tilted fault blocks bounded by listric normal faults and half-grabens developed between blocks, showing typical rifted structures. The trough display three kinds of sedimentary sequences with different seismic reflection characteristics: prerift, synrift and postrift sediments. The prerift sequence develops parallel to the dip direction of tilted fault blocks. The synrift sediments, mostly deposited in the half-grabens between tilted fault blocks, are generally well characterized by divergence of the reflectors towards the blocks indicating contemporaneous deposition during tilting. The postrift sediments are featured by continuous and parallel reflectors. The width of the half-graben and the throw-displacement rate of the basin bounding fault are closely connected. The throw-displacement rate is the maximum when the rifting event is the most active and the width of the half-graben is proportional to the rate.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.65-80
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• 1994

The Tertiary $Ch{\check{o}}ngja$ basin is located in the southeastern coastal area of the Korean Peninsula. It is a lozenge shaped fault-bounded basin with circa $5{\times}5km$ areal extent, isolated from other Tertiary basins by the Cretaceous Ulsan Formation in-between. The northwestern boundary of the basin is a domino/listric type normal fault trending $N30^{\circ}E$, whereas its southwestern boundary is a dextral strike-slip fault (trending $N20^{\circ}W$) with a lateral offset of more than 1 km. The basin is bounded by the East Sea on the eastern margin. Basin-fills consist of extrusive volcanic rock (Tangsa Andesites) of Early Miocene (16~22 Ma in radiometric age), unconsolidated fluviatile conglomerate (Kangdong Formation) and shallow brackish-water sandstone ($Sinhy{\check{o}}n$ Formation). The latter yields abundant Vicarya-Anadara molluscan fossils of early Middle Miocene age. The Tertiary strata become younger toward the northwestern boundary-fault of the basin, showing a zonal distribution pattern parallel to the fault: the younger sedimentary formations occupy a narrow zone of 2 km width along the northwestern boundary-fault, whereas the older Tangsa Andesites underlie them unconformably in the eastern and southeastern portions of the basin. The strata in the basin, including the Tangsa Andesites, are tilted (about $20^{\circ}$) toward the northwestern boundary-fault Sedimentary strata thicken toward the boundary-fault, forming a wedge shaped half-graben structure. A number of small-scale syndepositional normal growth faults and graben structures are observed in the sedimentary strata. These extensional structures have the same trend as the normal northwestern boundary-fault which we interpret as a pull-apart detachment fault. These characteristics imply persistent extension during the basin evolution, caused by a NW-SE directed tensional force. The $Ch{\check{o}}ngja$ basin is, thus, a kind of syndepositional tectonic basin evolved in a strike-slip (pull-apart) regime. The latter was caused by a dextral simple shear associated with the NNW-SSE opening of the East Sea. In view of the fact that the normal growth faults do not cut through the uppermost portion of the youngest $Sinhy{\check{o}}n$ Formation, it is inferred that the tensional force came to be inactive in the early Middle Miocene. This is coincident in timing with the termination of the East Sea opening (15 Ma).

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2015

In order to outline the kinematics and movement history of a new Quaternary fault, Jingwan Fault in Dangjin, West Korea, we analyzed the geometry of the fault zone composed of a few gouge zones, and made ESR dating for fault gouge materials. The $N55^{\circ}E$ striking Jingwan Fault is a normal fault and exhibits a gradual change in dip (gentle in the lower part, steep in the upper part), indicating a listric fault. As for the fault gouge zone, its thickness varies and reaches 2~3 cm in the lower part or between basement rocks, and 20~30 cm in the middle-upper part or between the basement and Quaternary deposit. It is observed in the latter case that more than three gouge zones develop with different colors, and branch out and re-merge, or they are partly superimposed, indicating different movement episodes. The cumulative displacement is estimated to be about 10 m using the geological cross-sections, from which it is inferred that the total length of fault may be about 2.5 km on the basis of the empirical relation between cumulative displacement and fault length. Therefore, a more study would be needed to verify the entire fault length. The results of ESR dating for three gouge samples at different spots along the fault yields ages of $651{\pm}47$, $649{\pm}96$, and $436{\pm}66ka$, indicating at least two movement episodes. Slickenlines observed on the fault planes indicate a pure dip slip (normal faulting), which suggests that the ENE-WSW trending Jingwan Fault was presumably moved under a NNW-SSE extensional environment.