• Title/Summary/Keyword: plate tectonic

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Geochemical Study of the Cretaceous Granitic Rocks in Southwestern Part of the Korean Peninsula (한반도 남서부지역에 분포하는 백악기 화강암류에 대한 지화학적 연구)

  • Wee Soo Meen;Park Se Mi;Choi Seon Cyu;Ryu In Chang
    • Economic and Environmental Geology
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    • v.38 no.2 s.171
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    • pp.113-127
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    • 2005
  • Cretaceous intrusive and extrusive rocks are widely distributed in the southwestern part of the Korean peninsula, possibly the result of intensive magmatism which occurred in response to subduction of the western proto-Pacific plate beneath the north-eastern part of the Eurasian plate. Geochemical and petrological study on the Cretaceous granitic rocks were carried out in order to constrain the petrogenesis of the granitic magma and to establish the paleotectonic environment of the area. Whole rock chemical data of the granitic rocks from the study area indicate that the all the rocks have characteristics of calc-alkaline series in the subalkaline field. The overall geochemical features show systematic variations in each granitic body, but the source materials of each granitic body are thought to have been different in their chemical composition. Higher values of $Fe_2O_3/FeO$ of the granitic rocks in the western area suggest that the granitoids had been solidified under highly oxidizing environment. The granitic bodies in the eastern area also show higher contents of Li, Ni, Co, Sr, Cr, Sc and lower Rb and Nb compared to the those of the western area. Chondrite normalized REE patterns show generally enriched LREE and strong negative Eu anomalies in the western wet while slight to flat Eu anomalies in the east-ern area. The REE and $(La/Lu)_{CN}$ of the granites are $60{\~}499ppm$ and $8.9{\~}66$ correspond to the range of the continental margin granite. On the ANK vs. ACNK and tectonic discrimination diagrams, parental magma type of the granites corresponds to I-type, VAG and syn-collision granite. Interpretations of the chemical characteristics of the granitic rocks favor their emplacement in a compressional tectonic regime at continental margin during the subduction of proto-Pacific plate.

Geochemical Characteristics of the Uljin Granitoids in Northeastern Part of the Yeongnam Massif, Korea (영남육괴 북동부 울진지역 화강암류의 지화학적 특성)

  • Wee, SooMeen;Kim, Ji-Young;Lim, Sung-Man
    • Journal of the Korean earth science society
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    • v.34 no.4
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    • pp.313-328
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    • 2013
  • Jurassic granitoids in the northeastern part of the Yeongnam Massif are possibly the result of intensive magmatic activities that occurred in response to subduction of the proto-Pacific plate beneath the northeast portion of the Eurasian plate. Geochemical studies on the granitic rocks are carried out in order to constrain the petrogenesis of the granitic magma and to establish the paleotectonic environment of the area. Whole rock chemical data of the Uljin granitoids in the northeastern part of the Yeongnam Massif indicate that all of the rocks have the characteristics of calcalkaline series in subalkaline field. The overall major element trends show systematic variations in each granitic body, but the source materials of each granitoids seem to have different chemical composition. The Uljin granitoids are different from other granitic rocks, which distributed vicinity of the study area, in the contents of $Al_2O_3$ and trace elements such as Cr, Co, Ni, Sr, Y and Nb. The Uljin granitoids have geochemical features similar to slab-derived adakites such as high $Al_2O_3$, Sr contents and high Sr/Y, La/Yb ratios, but they have low Y and Yb contents. The major ($SiO_2$, $Al_2O_3$, MgO) and trace element (Sr, Y, La, Yb) contents of the Uljin granitoids fall well within the adakitic field. The Uljin granitoids have similar geochemical characteristics, paleotectonic environments and intrusion ages to those of the Yatsuo plutonic rocks of Hida belt located on northwestern part of Japan. Chondrite normalized REE patterns show generally enriched LREEs ($(La/Yb)_{CN}=10.6-103.4$) and are slight negative to flat Eu anomalies. On the ANK vs. A/CNK and tectonic discrimination diagrams, parental magma type of the granites corresponds to I-type and volcanic arc granite (VAG). Interpretations of the chemical characteristics of the granitic rocks favor their emplacement in a compressional tectonic regime at the continental margin during the subduction of Izanagi plate in Jurassic period.

Tectonics of the south Shetland Islands and Geology of king George Island: A Review (남쉐틀랜드군도의 지체구조 및 킹죠지섬의 지질)

  • 이민성;박병권
    • 한국해양학회지
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    • v.25 no.2
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    • pp.74-83
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    • 1990
  • The similarity in Mesozoic geology between the Antarctic Peninsula and South America indicates the possibility that they had situated along the same tectonics line before the separation of southwestern Gondwanaland. The igneous activity around the Antarctic Peninsula, including the South Shetland islands, can be correlated with the South American Cordillera Orogeny due to the subduction of Farallon/Phoenix plate until late Mesozoic. However igneous activity in Tertiary correlates with the tectonics movement accompanying the formations of Drake passage and Scotian sea. The south Shetland islands form a Jurassic-Quaternary miasmatic island arc on the sialic basement of schist and deformed sedimentary rocks. Forming of the South Shetland Islands arc began during the latest Jurassic or earliest Cretaceous from the southwestern part of the archipelago. The igneous activity migrated northeasterly and continued in most areas until late Tertiary. The entire arc-forming period, between late Jurassic and late tertiary times, was characterized by emplacement and eruption of magmas of intermediate between island-arc tholeiite and calc-alkaline types. However, Quaternary volcanic rocks show strong alkaline affinities which corresponds to the switch from compressional to intra: plate tensional tectonics. The rocks of late Cretaceous to Tertiary, mainly found in King George Island, consist of lava of basalt to andesite and intercalated pyroclastic rocks. Some of the volcanic rocks, which ofter called quartz-pyrite lodes'are severely altered and include much content of calcite,silica and pyrite.The stratographic succession of King George Island can be divided into two formation:Fields formation and Hennequin formation.The Fildes formation crops out at the west side of Admiralty Bay n King George Island,while the Hennequin formation at the east side of the bay.These two formtions are thought to be formed contempiranceously.The Fildes formation consists of altered olivine-basalt and basaltic andestie, whereas the Hennequin formation consists of fine-grained hypersthene-augite-andesite.Both formations interclate pyroclastic rocks.

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Geological Achievements of the 20th Century and Their Influence on Geological Thinking (20세기에 이룩된 지질과학 업적과 이것이 지질과학 사고방식에 끼친 영향)

  • Chang, Soon-Keun;Lee, Sang-Mook
    • Journal of the Korean earth science society
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    • v.21 no.5
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    • pp.635-646
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    • 2000
  • Geological achievements of the 20th century revolutionized our views about geological understanding and concept. A good example is the concept of continental drift suggested early in the 20th century and later explained in terms of seafloor spreading and plate tectonics. Our understanding of the compositions of materials forming earth has also improved during the20th century. Radio and stable isotopes together with biostratigraphy and sequence stratigraphy allow us to interpret the evolution of sedimentary basins in terms of plate movement and sedimentation processes. The Deep Sea Drilling Project initiated in 1960s and continued as the Ocean Drilling Project in 1980s is one of the most successful international research observations, and new developments in computational techniques have provided a wholly new view about the interior of the earth. Most of the geological features and phenomena observed in deep sea and around continental margins are now explained in terms of global tectonic processes such as superplumes flowing up from the interior of our planet and interacting with such as Rodinia Pannotia and Nena back in the Precambrian time. The space explorations which began in the late 1950s opened up a new path to astrogeology, astrobiology, and astropaleontology. The impact theory rooted in the discovery of iridium and associated phenomena in 1980s revived Cuvier's catastrophism as a possible explanation for the extinctions of biotas found in the geological record of this planet. Due to the geological achievements made in the 20th century, we now have a better understanding of geologic times and processes that were too long to be grasped by human records.

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Geological Structure of the Moisan Epithermal Au-Ag Mineralized Zone, Haenam and its Tectonic Environment at the Time of the Mineralization (해남 모이산 천열수 금-은 광호대의 지질구조와 광화작용 당시의 지구조환경)

  • Kang, Ji-Hoon;Lee, Deok-Seon;Ryoo, Chung-Ryul;Koh, Sang-Mo;Chi, Se-Jung
    • Economic and Environmental Geology
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    • v.44 no.5
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    • pp.413-431
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    • 2011
  • An Epithemal Au-Ag mineralized zone is developed in the Moisan area of Hwangsan-myeon, Haenam-gun, Jeol-lanam-do, Korea, which is located in the southwestern part of the Ogcheon metamorphic zone. It is hosted in the Hwangsan volcaniclastics of the Haenam Formation of the Late Cretaceous Yucheon Group. This research investigated the characteristics of bedding arrangement, fold, fault, fracture system, quartz vein and the time-relationship of the fracture system to understand the geological structure related to the formation of the mineralized zone. On the basis of this result, the tectonic environment at the time of the mineralization was considered. Beds mainly trend east-northeast and gently dip into north-northwest or south-southeast. Their poles have been rearranged by subhorizontal-upright open fold of (east)-northeast trend as well as dip-slip fault. Fracture system was formed through at least 6~7 different deformation events. D1 event; formation phase of the main fracture set of EW (D1-1) and NS (D1-2) trends with a good extensity, D2 event; that of the extension fracture of NW trend, and conjugate shear fracturing of the EW (dextral) and NS (sinistral) trends, D3 event; that of the extension fracture of NE trend, and conjugate shear refracturing of the EW (sinistral) and NS (dextral) trends, D4 event; that of the extension fracture of NS trend showing a poor extensity, D5 event; that of the extension fracture of NW trend, and conjugate shear refracturing of the EW (dextral) and NS (sinistral) trends, D6 event; that of the extension fracture of EW trend showing a poor extensity. Frequency distribution of fracture sets of each deformation event is D1-1 (19.73 %)> D1-2 (16.44 %)> D3=D5 (14.79 %)> D2 (13.70 %)> D4 (12.33 %)> D6 (8.22 %) in descending order. The average number of fracture sets within 1 meter at each deformation event is D6 (5.00)> D5 = D4 (4.67)> D2 (4.60)> D3 (4.13)> D1-1 (3.33)> D1-2 (2.83) in descending order. The average density of all fractures shows 4.20 fractures/1 m, that is, the average spacing of all fractures is more than 23.8 cm. The frequency distribution of quartz veins at each orientation is as follows: EW (52 %)> NW (28 %)> NS (12 %)> NE (8 %) trends in descending order. The average density of all quartz veins shows 4.14 veins/1 m, that is, the average spacing of all quartz veins is more than 24.2 cm. Microstructural data on the quartz veins indicate that the epithermal Au-Ag mineralization (ca. 77.9~73.1 Ma) in the Moisan area seems to occur mainly along the existing D1 fracture sets of EW and NS trends with a good extensity not under tectonic stress but non-deformational environment directly after epithermal rupture fracturing. The D1 fracturing is considered to occur under the unstable tectonic environment which alternates compression and tension of NS trend due to the oblique northward subduction of the Izanagi plate resulting in the igneous activity and deformation of the Yucheon Group and the Bulguksa igneous rocks during Late Cretaceous time.

Quaternary Tectonic Activities and Seismic Stability of Suryum Fault and Yupchon Fault, SE Korea (수렴단층과 읍천단층의 제4기 활동 및 지진 안정성)

  • Hwang, Sangill;Shin, Jaeryul;Yoon, Soon-Ock
    • Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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    • v.18 no.4
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    • pp.351-363
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    • 2012
  • Although the Korean peninsula has been considered as a largely aseismic region compared with the surrounding high seismic areas such as North China and Japan, there are more than thirty Quaternary faults reported so far, which are mostly centered in the southeastern peninsula. Structural studies of active faults exposed in Yangnam-myeon of Gyeongju, SE Korea are largely interpreted to post date the late Quaternary, suggesting that the NE-trending reverse faults may result from the active stress regime in the peninsula. The prevailing present-day E-W $S_{Hmax}$ orientations in the peninsula are consistent with the nature of plate forcing stemming from the convergence between the Indo-Australian and Eurasian plates. It is clear that the Quaternary faults have been reactivated, although resolving more elaborate time intervals responsible for a future rupture remains a significant challenge. This study contributes to better assess many of potential seismic hazards in the study area, in particular, in terms of seismic stability for foundation of nuclear power plant.

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Monitoring and Analyzing Water Area Variation of Lake Enriquillo, Dominican Republic by Integrating Multiple Endmember Spectral Mixture Analysis and MODIS Data

  • Kim, Sang Min;Yoon, Sang Hyun;Ju, Sungha;Heo, Joon
    • Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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    • v.5 no.2
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    • pp.59-71
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    • 2018
  • Lake Enriquillo, the largest lake in the Dominican Republic, recently has undergone unusual water area changes since 2001 thus it has been affected seriously by local community's livelihood. Earthquakes and seismic activities of Hispaniola plate tectonic coupled with human activities and climate change are addressed as factors causing the increasing. Thus, a thorough study on relationship between lake area changing, and those factors is needed urgently. To do so, this study applied MESMA on MODIS data to extract water area of Lake Enriquillo during 2001 and 2012 bimonthly, with six issues 12-year. MODIS provides high temporal resolution, and its coarse spatial resolution is compensated by MESMA fraction map. The increase in water area was $142.2km^2$, and the maximum lake area was $338.0km^2$ (in 2012). Water areas extracted by two Landsat scenes at two different times with three image classification approaches (ISODATA, MNDWI, and TCW) were used to assess accuracy of MODIS and MESMA results; it indicated that MESMA water areas are same as ISODATA's, less than 0.4%, while the highest difference is between MESMA and TCW, 2.4%. A number of previously formulated hypotheses of lake area change were investigated based on the outcomes of the present study, though none of them could fully explain the changes.

Petrochemical Study on the Precambrian Granitic Rocks in the Basement Area of Hambaeg Basin (함백익지(咸白益地) 기반지역(基盤地域)에 분포(分布)하는 선(先)캠브리아 화강암질암류(花崗岩質岩類)의 암석화학적(岩石化學的) 연구(硏究))

  • Yun, Hyun Sao;Lee, Dai Sung
    • Economic and Environmental Geology
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    • v.19 no.1
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    • pp.35-55
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    • 1986
  • The area of this study is located in the Sang dong district, Youngwol Gun, Kangwon Do, where the Ogcheon fold belt comes into contact with the Ryongnam massif. The area is covered by the Precambrian metasedimentary rocks of Yulri Group in the south from the line of Ungyosan-Maebongsan-Jansan-Taebaegsan Mountains and by the Cambro-Ordovician sedimentary rocks of Choseon Supergroup in the north. The Choseon Supergroup unconformably overlies the Yulri group. Several granitic intrusives occur in the Precambrian and Cambro-Ordovician terrain. The purpose of this study is to clarify the geochronology, mineralogical composition, geochemical characteristics, petrogenesis and tectonic settings of the Precambrian granitic rocks, and to evaluate the P.T. conditions of granitic intrusions. The K/Ar ages obtained from the muscovite of Nonggeori Granite, Naedeogri granite and pegmatite intruded into the Yulri Group are Early Proterozoic ($1805{\pm}18Ma$ to $1642{\pm}23Ma$), and those from the migmatitic pegmatite are Late Carboniferous ($305{\pm}4Ma$), respectively. The Precambrian granitic rocks are characterized by the presence of muscovite, tourmaline and grey feldspar with faint lineation of mafic minerals. In terms of mineralogical and chemical composition, the granitic rocks are felsic, calc-alkalic, peraluminous and S-type (ilmenite-series). The geochemical characteristics of major and trace elements indicate that the granitic rocks belong to syn-collision setting at the compressional plate margin. They were formed by progressive melting of relatively homogeneous crustal materials under 1~3kb and $670^{\circ}{\sim}720^{\circ}C$ in aqueous fluid conditions, and the Naedeogri granite was more fractionated than the Nonggeori granite. During the Taebaeg disturbance, Nonggeori granite, Naedeogri granite and pegmatite were intruded and emplaced into the Yulri Group. Migmatitic pegmatite occurring in the southwestern area, however, gave much younger muscovite age than the pegmatite intruded into the Yulri Group in rest of the area did, that might be due to the regional metamorphism of the Post-Choseon disturbance. The Geodo granitic mass and the Imog granite were intruded during the Bulgugsa disturbance.

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Late Neogene and Quaternary Vertical Motions in the Otway Coast, Southeast Australia (II): Epeirogenic Uplift Driven by Lithospheric Flexural Deformation (호주 남동부 Otway 해안의 후기 신제3기 및 제4기 융기 운동(II): 암석권 휨 현상에 의한 대륙 지각의 융기)

  • Shin, Jaeryul
    • Journal of the Korean earth science society
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    • v.33 no.6
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    • pp.534-543
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    • 2012
  • The relationship between tectonic uplift and geophysical analysis of gravity anomalies and the in-situ stress fields in the Otway Ranges, SE Australia is addressed in this study to understand the nature and possible mechanism for the neotectonic movements. The uplift axis of the ranges is coincident with the regional Bouguer gravity highs whereas thick Tertiary sedimentary successions are highly correlated with the gravity lows along the basin rift geometry. This result suggests that the gravity highs are separated by the thick Tertiary sedimentary successions. Regional structural trends associated with faults and foldings of the deformed surfaces are consistent with the prevailing NW-SE $S_{Hmax}$ trend in this part of the continent. The anomalously positive correlation between topography and Bouguer gravity fields suggests possibly a lithospheric flexural deformation mode at a long wavelength (order of $10^2$ kms) in the region. It also suggests that the reactivation of pre-existing lithospheric structures driven by plate boundary forces plays a key role in this mode.

Recent Gold Exploration in Japan (최근 일본의 금 탐사동향)

  • Nakayama, Ken
    • Economic and Environmental Geology
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    • v.29 no.6
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    • pp.665-676
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    • 1996
  • Domestic metal mines have contributed to the national industrialization of Japan for over a century through their stable supply of raw materials. However, due to the changes which have taken place in the industries structure, mining industry has been shifted to downstream industries. At present, only three major mines are in production. In recent times, changing economic conditions have made it increasingly difficult to develop new base metal mines. Subsequently, the deposit type targeted has shifted from base metals to epithermal associated gold deposits which, if of sufficient grade and tonnage, can be economical. Accompanying the dramatic rise in the price of gold during the late 1970's, has been an increase in the geological information and our understanding of epithermal gold deposits around the Pacific rim region. In particular, the common acceptance of the plate tectonic theory and the correlation's between modem geothermal systems and fossil epithermal systems were most important developments. In 1988, the Mining Council authorized the domestic exploration of 19 districts, targeting epithermal gold mineralization. Since 1989 the Metal Mining Agency of Japan, semi-government organization, has been conducted gold exploration in such area. With new genetic concepts and new technologies, promising gold mineralization has been discovered. Two such areas which are at an advanced stage of exploration are Seta, in northern Hokkaido, and Noya, in central Kyushu.

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