• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.121-131
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• 2001

The combination of geological, structural and satellite image studies is used to make an examination of the Miocene eruptive type in the Eoil Basin, SE Korea. The basin subsided by the NW-SE extension due to NNW dextral shearing during the East Sea opening. Based on geological structures as well as lithofacies and ages of the basin-fills, it is divided into the NE subbasin and the SW subbasin which were abundantly filled with basaltic volcanics and marine sediments without volcanic materials, respectively: Syndeposional synclines and anticlines are characteristically developed in the NE subbasin, which amplitudes decrease away from the adjacent normal faults to make them into a homoclinal structure. The thicker lavas as well as the younger agglomerates and lacustrine sediments, which show circular distributions, are distributed around the axial zones of major synclines. The satellite image shows four remarkable circular structures within the NE subbasin. They are located adjacent to and along the normal faults, and they are laid almost exactly on the axial zones of the synclines as well as on the distribution area of the agglomerates and lacustrine sediments. These facts indicate that the basaltic lava effusion were conducted by the normal faults like a kind of fissure-eruption and its activity was more predominant at the sites in where the synclines are developed. More active effusion of lava became a reason for deeper subsidence to make differential subsidence and syndepositional folding adjacent to and along the normal faults. Hence, we suggest that a nested cauldron structure was formed in the NE subbasin of the Eoil Basin, and that the volcanism made the subbasin to be a lava pond and controlled the process of filling and sedimentation in the subbasin.