• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.24 no.8
• /
• pp.704-710
• /
• 2003

A study for analysing the characteristics of the 'Tsunami Earthquake' and 'Tsunamigenic Earthquake' has been done in terms of stress drop and tectonic characteristics using previous studies on magnitude, moment, energy, and length of fault. The 'Tsunami Earthquake' seemed to occur mainly on the subduction environment with a very low stress drop of about 10 bars and a thrust dip angle comparing those of the 'Tsunamigenic Earthquake' or other earthquakes. Released energy to moment ratio of the 'Tsunami Earthquake' also seemed to be lower. Earthquakes which generated tsunami in the East Sea seemed to be 'Tsunamigenic Earthquake' with a stress drop of about 30${\sim}$50 bars, and an average energy to moment ratio. Hence, stress drop, energy to moment ratio, and thrust dip angle seem to be indicators of earthquakes that produce tsunamis.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.51-63
• /
• 1980

The seismicity of the Korean Peninsula and its vicinity is investigated temporally (2 A. D. to 1978) and spatially to evaluate the seismic risk and to understand the neotectonics around the peninsula. The study has been conducted using macrocosmic data obtained from historical literature, and instrumental records recorded by the Worldwide Network of Standardized Seismographs(WWNSS). The seismicity of the peninsula was active from the 13th through the 17th centuries. A seismic quiescence began at the onset of the 18th century, and has continued for the last 200 years. Presently, the seismicity region is found to be active again. The return periods are determined by a statistical method based upon the cumulative magnitude recurrence. They indicate that the seismic risk is greater in the south or west than in the north or east of the peninsula. Focal mechanism solutions demonstrate that the neotectonic stress distribution in the Japan Sea is greatly influenced by the subduction of the Pacific Plate under the Eurasian Plate or the Philippine Sea Plate, even though the predominate local paleotectonics is controlled by the spreading of the earth's crut.

• Proceedings of the Mineralogical Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2002.05a
• /
• pp.1-3
• /
• 2002

The eastward extension of the suture zone between the Sino-Korea and Yangtze cratons in the Korean Peninsula and Japanese islands remains debatable (Hiroi, 1981; Cluzel et al., 1991; Yin and Nie, 1993; Sohma and Kunugiza, 1993; Isozaki, 1997; Arakawa et at., 2000), and is related to our understanding of the continent-continent collision orogeny. The collision orogeny varies in tectono-metamorphic processes and the timing differs from place to place, as exemplified by the absence of coesite and micro-diamond in the Korean Peninsula and Japanese islands, because it is a long-lived process of more than several tens of million years from subduction to exhumation in the Wilson cycle, and because the suture zone extends more than several thousand kilometers with a curved shape from the Qinling area of China to the Hida highland area of Japan. Hiroi (1981) is the first paper to correlate the Unazuki metamorphic rocks of the Hida metamorphic belt in Japan with the Ogcheon belt in the Korean Peninsula based on the presence of 240 Ma medium P/T metamorphic rocks in both belts, but there is a lack of recent studies on this correlation. To resolve the correlationship, there are two approaches: 1) petrological studies characterizing the origin and P-T history of rocks and 2) in-situ micro-dating of fine-grained, zoned minerals of zircon, monazite, uraninite and thorite using the EPMA (U-Th-Pb chemical dating or CHIME depending on calibration method) and the SHRIMP (Sensitive High-resolution ion Microprobe) to decipher the timing of geological events. As a first step of these approaches, micro-dating was undertaken to rocks of the Hida metamorphic belt and its Mesozoic cover (Tetori Group) in the Hida highland area, central Japan.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.38 no.3 s.172
• /
• pp.299-304
• /
• 2005

Geoid undulation and gravity anomaly were calculated from GRACE satellite data on the eastern Asia including Korean peninsula. Geoid undulation varies from -60m in the China to 60m toward the Pacific Ocean across the Korean Peninsula. Calculated gravity anomalies are in the range of -60 and 60 mgal except the subduction zone showing -100 mgal. High positive values are observed at Mt. Baekdu, Kaema highland and Taebaek mountains, and low values at Ulleung, Japan and Yamato basins in the East sea. We removed regional components below the spherical harmonic degree of 10 from gravity anomaly to get the residual anomaly for crust components. Residual gravity anomaly shows high anomalies at the northern mountainous area and Kyungsang basin in the Korean Peninsula. And low anomalies appears at the western Korea bay basin, Kunsan basin, Cheju basin, and Ulleung basin in the marine. Anomalies separated by the spherical harmonic degree as well as the residual anomalies are useful for the study of large crustal structure about geologic scale and depth distribution and for the survey of natural resources.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.109-114
• /
• 1984

The geophysical implications of the observed heat flow in the Korean Peninsula are examined. The Peninsula can be devided into two typical regions of high (Zone 1) and normal heat flows (Zone 2), and anomalous sharp change of heat flow between two zones is noteworthy. Zone 1 (southeastern coast of the Peninsula) to be connected to the East Sea (=Japan Sea) of high heat flow region corresponds with the region of late-Mesozoic to Tertiary igneous activity. With the radioactive elements concentrated in the crust, the observed heat flow in Zone 2 can be almostly explained. While, only a half of the heat flow in Zone 1 is explained. As a possible explanation of high heat flow in Zone 1, partial melting in the lower crust is examined. The temperature of $800-900^{\circ}C$ calculated at the bottom of the crust excludes the possibility of partial melting or magma generation in the crust. Alternatively, a remaining thermal effect of late-Mesozoic to Tertiary igneous activity is considered. However, it appears that the thermal effect already disappeared and that the vertical temperature distribution reached at steady state 30 MY ago (= 10 MY after the igneous activities came to an end). After all, the existence of some other effective heat transfer in Zone 1 is strongly suggested. The high heat flow to be same kind of anomalous one of the East Sea can be recognized as a result of the trench-back-arc thermal flux. The plate subduction in the Japan Trench will generate an induced flow above the slab of the East Sea, a typical back-arc basin, and hence the induced flow will heat the surrounding lithosphere.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.33 no.4
• /
• pp.249-260
• /
• 2000

The development of dual volcanic chains, parallel to the trend of the subduction trench, is observed in the southern part of Korea. Elsewhere on the Earth volcanic arcs dominantly consist of two such chains. In the southern part of Korea, two volcanic chains within a single volcanic arc was developed. Kyongsang basin, where the first volcanic chain located, and Youngdong-Kwangju depression zone where the second volcanic zone located, showed sub-parallel volcanic rock distributed areas. Concentrations of incompatible elements in the southern part of Korea samples show clear across-arc variations, with lavas from the first volcanic chain being most depleted in these elements, all incompatible element concentrations increase towards the second volcanic chain. The above across-arc variation may be caused by the difference in solid phases coexisting with the fluid phases during the dehydration processes. The concentrations of incompatible elements, Zr/Y ratios, and Rb/K ratios indicate that the second volcanic chain (Youngdong-Kwangiu depression zone) was generated by low degrees of partial melting at the deeper depth compared to the conditions of the first volcanic chain (Kyongsang basin) and residual garnet probably attributed to the their partial melting.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.183-200
• /
• 2017

Alkali rhyolites in the Cheonmunbong of the Mt. Baekdu stratovolcano show porphyritic texture in the glassy or aphanic groundmass. Major phenocryst is alkali-feldspar, pyroxene, and amphibole, and small amount of microphenocryst is olivine, quartz, opaque mineral (ilmenite). The content of $Fe^{2+}/(Fe^{2+}+Mg^{2+})$ and alkali elements in the mafic minerals is high. Alkali feldspar is classified as sanidine or anorthclase, olivine as fayalite, and pyroxene as ferro-hedenbergite of ferro-augite area. Amphibole belongs to alkali amphibole group, but FeO and $Fe_2O_3$ were not separated, so it is required future studies. Nb(-) anomaly suggesting that slab-derived materials might have played a primary role in the genesis of the rhyolite magma, is not observed. It is noted that they originated in the within plate environment which is not related to subduction zone of the convergent plate boundary. The Mt. Baekdu alkaline rocks are classified into the comendite series. The alkali rhyolites of the summit at Mt. Baekdu shows the disequilibrium mineral assemblages, suggesting that it evolved from thrachytic magma with experience of magma mixing as well as fractional crystallization.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.255-267
• /
• 2009

The intrusive rocks in the Hudongri area, Chuncheon located in central Gyeonggi Massif consist of gabbroic diorite and diorite. K-Ar age of biotite separated from diorite sample records middle Triassic age of 228 Ma. The intrusives are characterized by enrichment of MgO, Ni and Cr as well as large ion lithophile elements such as Sa and Sr, which is indicative of derivation of magma from enriched mantle. The intrusives also have enriched Sr-Nd isotopic compositions, which appear to result from a long-term incompatible element enriched mantle source with an effect of crustal contamination. Occurrence of abundant hydrous minerals such as amphiboles and biotite rather than anhydrous minerals of pyroxene and olivine in mafic intrusive as well as being plotted in volcanic arc field in tectonic environment discrimination diagram indicate the mafic-intermediate intrusives in the Hudongri area, Chuncheon were derived from mantle material enriched by subduction.

• Proceedings of the KSEEG Conference
• /
• 2003.04a
• /
• pp.7-14
• /
• 2003

The precious-meta] mineralization of epithermal type in the Korean Peninsula, which is spread over a broader range of ca. 110 to 60 Ma with a major population between 90 and 70 Ma, mainly occurred along the NE-trending major strike-slip fault systems (i.e., the Gongju and Gwangju ones) that commonly include volcano-tectonic depressions and calderas. The occurrence of epithermal mineralization during Late Cretaceous clearly indicates that the geologic setting of the Korean Peninsula changed to the favorable depth of ore formation with very shallow-crustal environments (〈1.0 kb) accompanied with gold-silver (-base-meta]) mineralization. Epithermal gold-silver deposits in Korea are primarily distinguished as sediment-dominant and volcanic-dominant basins by using criteria of varying alteration, ore and gangue mineralogy deposited by the interaction of different ore-forming fluids with host rocks and meteoric waters. These differences between the central and southern portions are causally linked to the tectonic evolution of the Peninsula during the Cretaceous time. In the Early Cretaceous, the sinistral strike-slip movements due to the oblique subduction of the Izanagi Plate resulted in the Gongju and Gwangju fault systems in the central portion of the Korean Peninsula, which was accompanied with a number of sediment-dominant basins formed along these faults. During the Late Cretaceous, the mode of convergence of the Izanagi Plate changed to northwesteward so that orthogonal convergence occurred with a calc-alkaline volcanism. As results, volcanic-dominant basins were developed in the southern portion of the Peninsula, accompanied with volcano-tectonic depressions and caldera-related fractures. The magmatism and related fractures during Late Cretaceous may play an important role in the formation of geothermal systems. Thus, such fault zones may be favorable environments for veining emplacement that is closely related to the precious-metal mineralization of epithermal type in the Korean Peninsula.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.49 no.1
• /
• pp.23-30
• /
• 2016

Powder samples of natural lawsonite (Ca-lawsonite, $CaAl_2Si_2O_7(OH)_2{\cdot}H_2O$) was studied structurally up to 8 GPa at room temperature using monochromatic synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction and a diamond anvil cell (DAC) with a methanol : ethanol : water (16 : 3 : 1 by volume) mixture solution as a penetrating pressure transmitting medium (PTM). Upon pressure increase, lawsonite does not show any apparent pressure induced expansion (PIE) or phase transition. Pressure-volume data were fitted to a second-order Birch-Murnaghan equation of state using a fixed pressure derivative of 4 leading to a bulk modulus ($B_0$) of 146(6) GPa. This compression is further characterized to be isotropic with calculated linear compressibilities of ${\beta}^a=0.0022GPa^{-1}$, ${\beta}^b=0.0024GPa^{-1}$, and ${\beta}^c=0.0020GPa^{-1}$.