• Title/Summary/Keyword: rifting

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Evolution of the eastern margin of Korea: constraints on the opening of the East Sea (Japan Sea)

  • Kim, Han-Joon;Jou, Hyeong-Tae;Suk, Bong-Chool
    • 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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    • 2007.12a
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    • pp.73-83
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    • 2007
  • We interpreted marine seismic profiles in conjunction with swath bathymetric and magnetic data to investigate rifting to breakup processes at the eastern Korean margin that led to the separation of the southwestern Japan Arc. Analysis of rift fault patterns suggests that rifting at the Korean margin was primarily controlled by normal faulting resulting from extension rather than strike-slip deformation. Two extension directions of E-W and NW-SE for rifting are recognized. We interpret that the E-W direction represents initial rifting at the inner margin and the NW-SE direction probably represents the extension in response to tensional tectonics associated with the subduction of the Pacific Plate in the NW direction. No significant volcanism was involved in rifting. In contrast, the inception of sea floor spreading documents a pronounced volcanic phase which appears to reflect asthenospheric upwelling as well as rift-induced convection particularly in the narrow southern margin. We suggest that structural and igneous evolution of the Korean margin, although it is in a back-arc setting, can be explained by the processes occurring at the passive continental margin with magmatism influenced by asthenospheric upwelling.

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Structural Evolution of the Northern Okinawa Trough (북부 오키나와트러프의 구조 발달)

  • Sunwoo Don
    • 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.

Architecture of Continental Rifting in the South Korea Plateou: Constraints to the Evolution of the Eastern Korea Margin and the Opening of the East Sea (Japan Sea)

  • Kim, Han-Joon;Jou, Hyeong-Tae;Yoo, Hai-Soo
    • Journal of the Korean Geophysical Society
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    • v.9 no.3
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    • pp.189-197
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    • 2006
  • The Korea Plateau is a continental fragment rifted and partially segmented from the Korean Peninsulaat the initial stage of the opening of the East Sea (Japan Sea). We interpreted marine seismic profiles from the South Korea Plateau in conjunction with swath bathymetric to investigate processes of con-tjnental rifting and separation of the southwestern Japan Arc. The SouU-i Korea Plateau preserves funda-mental elements of rift architecture comprising a seaward succession of a rift basin and an uplifted rift flank passing into the slope, typical of a passive continental margin. Two distinguished rift basins (Onnuri and Bandal Basins) in the South Korea Plateau are bounded by major synthetic and smaller antithetic faults, creating wide and symmetric profiles. The large-offset border fault zones of these basins have convex dip slopes and demonstrate a zig-zag arrangement along strike. Rifting was primarily controlled by normal faulting resulting from extension orthogonal to the inferred line of breakup along the base ofthe slope rather U-ian strike-slip deformation. Two extension direcdons for rifdng are recog-nized; U-ie Onnuri Basin was rifted in U-ie EW direction; U-ie Bandal Basin in U-ie EW and NW-SE directions, suggesting two rift stages. We interpret that the E-W direction represents initial rifting at the inner margin; while the Japan Basin widened, rifting propagated repeatedly from the Japan Basin to the southeast toward the Korean margin but could not penetrate the strong continental lithosphere of the Korean Shield and changed direction to the south, resulting in E-W extension to create the rift basins at the Korean margin. The Hupo Basin to the south of the Korea Plateau is estimated to have formed in this process. The NW-SE direction probably represents the direction of rifting orthogonal to the inferred line of breakup along the base of the slope of the South Korea Plateau; after breakup the southwestern Japan Arc separated in the SE direction, indicating a response to tensional tectonics associated with the subduction of the Pacific Plate in the NE direction. We suggest that structural evolution of the eastern Korean margin can be explained by the processes occurring at the passive continental margin.

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Structural Evolution of the Eastern Margin of Korea: Implications for the Opening of the East Sea (Japan Sea) (한국 동쪽 대륙주변부의 구조적 진화와 동해의 형성)

  • Kim Han-Joon;Jou Hyeong-Tae;Lee Gwang-Hoon;Yoo Hai-Soo;Park Gun-Tae
    • Economic and Environmental Geology
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    • v.39 no.3 s.178
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    • pp.235-253
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    • 2006
  • We interpreted marine seismic profiles in conjunction with swath bathymetric and magnetic data to investigate rifting to breakup processes at the Korean margin leading to the separation of the Japan Arc. The Korean margin is rimmed by fundamental elements of rift architecture comprizing a seaward succession of a rift basin and an uplifted rift flank passing into the slope, typical of a passive continental margin. In the northern part, rifting occurred in the Korea Plateau, a continental fragment extended and partially segmented from the Korean Peninsula, that provided a relatively broader zone of extension resulting in a number of rifts. Two distinguished rift basins (Onnuri and Bandal Basins) in the Korea Plateau we bounded by major synthetic and smaller antithetic faults, creating wide and symmetric profiles. The large-offset border fault zones of these basins have convex dip slopes and demonstrate a zig-zag arrangement along strike. In contrast, the southern margin is engraved along its length with a single narrow rift basin (Hupo Basin) that is an elongated asymmetric half-graben. Rifting at the Korean margin was primarily controlled by normal faulting resulting from extension in the west and southeast directions orthogonal to the inferred line of breakup along the base of the slope rather than strike-slip deformation. Although rifting involved no significant volcanism, the inception of sea floor spreading documents a pronounced volcanic phase which seems to reflect slab-induced asthenospheric upwelling as well as rift-induced convection particularly in the narrow southern margin. We suggest that structural and igneous evolution of the Korean margin can be explained by the processes occurring at the passive continental margin with magmatism intensified by asthenospheric upwelling in a back-arc setting.

Interpretation of geological structures and stratigraphy around the Kita-Yamato Bank in the East Sea (동해 키타-야마토 뱅크 주변 해역의 지질구조 및 퇴적층서 해석)

  • Huh Sik;Yoo Hai Soo;Park Chan Hong;Han Sang Joon;Jou Hyeong Tae
    • The Korean Journal of Petroleum Geology
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    • v.9 no.1_2 s.10
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    • pp.16-23
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    • 2001
  • The study area in the East Sea is located on the northeastern margins of the Ulleung Basin near the Kita-Yamato Bank. The research area provides the important clue to the development of Miocene basins which are characterized by the normal faults and volcanic activities related to rifting in the continental crust. Kita-Yamato Bank is a small sediment-filled graben which was formed by failed rifting in the Early Miocene. The basins rapidly vary the bathymetry, depth of acoustic basement and thickness of sedimentary layer. The tension in the study area caused the extensional lithospheric deformation before/during the Early Miocene. In consequence, tectonic forces resulted in the depression or subsidence of basement from continental rifting in the Kita-Yamato Bank followed by the opening of the Ulleung Basin, and caused the onset of graben or half-graben structure bounded by large blocked syn-rift faults. Afterward no significant tectonic deformation exists, with the consequence that post-rift normal faults with small heave were formed and reactivated by the resultant forces such as tectonic subsidence, sediment loading and volcanic activity. The Cenozoic sediment layer has a maximum thickness of 1.0 s along the center of the graben or half-graben, which overlies the consolidated acoustic basement. Seismic units V and IV supposed to be syn-rift sedimentary rocks are deformed by both the volcanic activities and numerous basement-involved normal faults induced from extension. In the uppermost layer, slump scars resulted from the slope failure are recognized.

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High-resolution Seismic Imaging of Shallow Geology Offshore of the Korean Peninsula: Offshore Uljin (신기 지구조운동의 해석을 위한 한반도 근해 천부지질의 고해상 탄성파 탐사: 울진 주변해역)

  • Kim, Han-Joon;Jou, Hyeong-Tae;Yoo, Hai-Soo;Kim, Kwang-Hee;You, Lee-Sun
    • Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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    • v.14 no.2
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    • pp.127-132
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    • 2011
  • We acquired and interpreted more than 650 km of high-resolution seismic reflection profiles in the Hupo Basin, offshore east coast of Korea at $37^{\circ}N$ in the East Sea (Japan Sea) to image shallow and basement deformation. The seismic profiles reveal that the main depocenter of the Hupo Basin in the study area is bounded by the large offset Hupo Fault on the east and an antithetic fault on the west; however, the antithetic fault is much smaller both in horizontal extension and in vertical displacement than the Hupo Fault. Sediment infill in the Hupo Basin consists of syn-rift (late Oligocene. early Miocene) and post-rift (middle Miocene.Holocene) units. The Hupo Fault and other faults newly defined in the Hupo Basin strike dominantly north and show a sense of normal displacement. Considering that the East Sea has been subjected to compression since the middle Miocene, we interpret that these normal faults were created during continental rifting in late Oligocene to early Miocene times. We suggest that the current ENE direction of maximum principal compressive stress observed in and around the Korean peninsula associated with the motion of the Amurian Plate induces the faults in the Hupo Basin to have reverse and right-lateral, strike-slip motion, when reactivated. A recent earthquake positioned on the Hupo Fault indicates that in the study area and possibly further in the eastern Korean margin, earthquakes would occur on the faults created during continental rifting in the Tertiary.

Testbed development for automation of performance evaluation to cleaning robot (청소용 로봇의 성능평가 자동화를 위한 Testbed 개발)

  • Shin I.S.;Moon S.B.;Park K.H.;Nam S.H.;Jang S.P.;Ji Y.I.
    • Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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    • 2005.06a
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    • pp.1024-1027
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    • 2005
  • This paper describes the performance index of mobile robot and development of testbed which is used to evaluate the index. The developed testbed has rectangular structure similar to a living room of home. It is semi-automation testbed system for evaluation of cleaning performance index. This system is composed with scattering and cleaning equipment of test materials, equipment rifting of objects in inner space and sides itself, vision processing system. To be consistent of performance evaluation of cleaning robot, we make use of camera in this system for the sake of measurement of robot s mobility, path and suction quantity.

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Tectonic History of the Tertiary Basins of the Southern Korean Peninsula (한반도 남부의 제3기 분지 발달사)

  • Yoon, Sun;Chang, Ki-Hong;You, Hoan-Su;Lee, Young-Gil
    • Economic and Environmental Geology
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    • v.24 no.3
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    • pp.301-308
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    • 1991
  • Four Tertiary basins are distributed on the eastern coast of the southern Korean Peninsula, that is, Bugpyeong, Yeonghae, Pohang and Yangnam basins from north to south. The Yangnam and Pohang basins are the largest ones and have been well studied on their stratigraphies, paleoenvironments and geologic ages, and their tectonic history is representative on the tectogenesis of the Tertiary basins of the southern Korean Peninsula. The geologic events occurred in the Yangnam and Pohang basins from the Early-Middle Eocene through the Middle Miocene suggest that the Yangnam and Pohang basins resulted from the volcanism and rifting caused by the uprising magma, that is, by the diapiric tectogenesis.

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An Inquiry into the Formation and Deformation of the Cretaceous Gyeongsang (Kyongsang) Basin, Southeastern Korea (한반도 동남부 백악기 경상분지의 형성과 변형에 관한 질의)

  • Ryu In-Chang;Choi Seon-Gyu;Wee Soo-Meen
    • Economic and Environmental Geology
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    • v.39 no.2 s.177
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    • pp.129-149
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    • 2006
  • Previously published stratigraphic, sedimentologic, paleontologic, paleomagnetic and geophysical data are reviewed to make an understanding on the tectonic evolution of the Cretaceous Gyeongsang (Kyongsang) basin, southeast Korea. A stratigraphic framework and a tectonic model on the formation and deformation of the Gyeongsang Basin are newly proposed on the basis of integration these data with magmatism and mineralization ages in the basin. A newly proposed stratigraphic framework indicates that strata in the basin can be subdivided into five distinct stratigraphic units that represent pre-rifting, syn-rifting, inversion I, II, and III stages. The Gyeongsang Basin was formed initially as a pre-rifting stage due to north-south extension in the Late Jurassic prior to a syn-riftins stage that resulted from east-west extension during the Early Cretaceous. In the Late Cretaceous, the basin was deformed by three-staged sequential deformation of north-south, northwest-southeast, and east-west compressions. The tectonic history of the basin has been largely controlled by the change of motion of the Izanagi Plate from north to northwest during the Cretaceous. In the early Cretaceous, the Izanagi Plate began to subduct northward beneath the Eurasian Plate and caused the left-lateral strike-slip fault systems in the southern part of the peninsula. The left-lateral wrenching of these fault systems was causally linked to development of pull-apart basins, such as the Gyeongsang Basin in the southeastern part of the peninsula. However, northwestward movement of the Izanagi Plate during the Late Cretaceous probably led to the extensive volcanism as well as sequential deformations in the basin. The stratigraphic and tectonic model, which is newly proposed as a result of this study, may be expected to enhancing the efficiency for exploration and exploitation of useful mineral resources in the basin as well as establishing geologic history in the Cretaceous Gyeongsang Basin. Together with the spatial and temporal correlation of the Cretaceous basins in adjacent areas, this stratigraphic and tectonic model provides a new geologic paradigm to delineate the sophisticated tectonic history of East Asia turing the Cretaceous.

Formation and Evolution of the Miocene Ipcheon Subbasin in Yangbuk-myeon, Gyeongju, SE Korea (한반도 남동부 경주시 양북면 마이오세 입천소분지의 형성과 발달사)

  • Seong, Changhun;Cheon, Youngbeom;Son, Moon;Sohn, Young Kwan;Kim, Jin-Seop
    • The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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    • v.22 no.1
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    • pp.19-34
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    • 2013
  • The Ipcheon Subbasin is an isolated Miocene basin in SE Korea, which has the geometry of an asymmetric graben elongated in the NE-SW direction. It is in contact with basement rocks by faults and separated from adjacent Waup and Eoil basins by the basement. The strata of the basin fills have an overall homoclinal structure, dipping toward NW or WNW. The basin fills consist of Early Miocene sediments rich in dacitic volcanic and volcaniclastic deposits and Middle Miocene non-volcanic and nonmarine conglomerates intercalated with sand layers, which are distributed in the northeastern and southwestern parts of the basin, respectively. Kinematic analysis of syndepositional conjugate faults in the basin fills indicates WNW-ESE extension of the basin. These features are very similar to those of the adjacent Waup and Eoil basins, indicating that the basin extension was governed by the NE-trending northwestern border faults and that the basin experienced a propagating rifting from NE to SW. Basaltic materials, which occur abundantly in the Eoil Basin, are totally absent in the Ipcheon Subbasin. The observations of the dacitic tuff and tuffaceous mudstone in the subbasin, on slabs and under microscope, suggest that they have lithologies very similar to those of the Yondongri Tuff in the Waup Basin. The Middle Miocene non-volcanic sediments of the Waup and Eoil basins and the Ipcheon Subbasin are distributed consistently in the southwestern part of each basin. It is thus concluded that the extension of the Ipcheon Subbasin began at about 22 Ma together with the Waup Basin and was lulled during the main extension period of the Eoil Basin between 20-18 Ma. At about 17 Ma, the subbasin was re-extended due to the activation of the Yeonil Tectonic Line associated with the propagating rifting toward SW. This event is interpreted to have provided new sedimentation space for the Middle Miocene sediments in the southwestern parts of the Waup and Eoil basins and the Ipcheon Subbasin as well.