• Proceedings of the KSEEG Conference
• /
• 2003.04a
• /
• pp.3-6
• /
• 2003

Southwest Hokkaido (Sapporo-Iwanai district) in the Northeast Japan arc (Fig. 1) is one of the best places to test the correlation among tectonic regime, stress field, magmatic style and hydrothermal mineralization. This paper reviews the Miocene to Pleistocene tectonic framework, geology, magmatic style and stress field of southwest Hokkaido, and correlates them with different types of deposits (Kuroko, epithermal base-metal and precious-metal). (omitted)

• The Korean Journal of Petroleum Geology
• /
• v.2 no.2 s.3
• /
• pp.59-70
• /
• 1994

The Cenozoic geological structures and the tectonic evolution of the southern Ulleung Basin were studied with seismic profiles and exploration well data. Basement structure of the Korea Strait is distinctly characterized by normal faults trending northeast to southwest. The normal faults of the basement are most likely related to the initial liking and extensional tectonics of Ulleung Basin. Tsushima fault along the west coast of Tsushima islands runs northeastward to the central Ulleung Basin. The Middle Miocene and older sequences in the Tsushima Strait show folds and faults mostly trending northeast to southwest. These folds and faults may be interpreted as a result of compressional tectonics. The Late Miocene to Qauternary sequences are not much deformed, but numerous faults mostly N-S trending are dominated in the Tsushima Strait. The Ulleung Basin was in intial rifting during Oligocene, and then active extension and subsidence from Early to early Middle Miocene. Therefore SW Japan separated from Korea Peninsula and drifted toward southeast, and Ulleung Basin was formed as a pull-apart basin under dextral transtensional tectonic regime. During rifting and extensional stage, Tsushima fault as a main tectonic line separating SW Japan block from the Korean Peninsula acted as a normal faulting with right-lateral strike-slip motion as SW Japan drifted southeastward. During middle Middle Miocene to early Late Miocene, the opening of Ulleung basin stopped and uplifted due to compressional tectonics. The southwest Japan block converging on the Korean Peninsula caused compressional stress to the southern margin of Ulleung Basin, resulting in strong deformation under sinistral transpressional tectonic regime. Tsushima fault acted as thrust fault with left-lateral strike-slip motion. From middle Late Miocene to Quaternary, the southern margin of Ulleung Basin has been controlled by compressional motion. Thus the Tsushima fault still appears to be an active thrust fault by compressional tectonic regime.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.169-193
• /
• 2016

In order to characterize the Neotectonic crustal deformation and current stress field in and around the Korean Peninsula and to interpret their tectonic implications, this paper synthetically analyzes the previous Quaternary fault and focal mechanism solution data and recent geotechnical in-situ stress data and examines the characteristics of crustal deformations and tectonic settings in and around East Asia after the Miocene. Most of the Quaternary fault outcrops in SE Korea occur along major inherited fault zones and show a NS-striking top-to-the-west thrust geometry, indicating that the faults were produced by local reactivation of appropriately oriented preexisting weaknesses under EW-trending pure compressional stress field. The focal mechanism solutions in and around the Korean Peninsula disclose that strike-slip faulting containing some reverse-slip component and reverse-slip faulting are significantly dominant on land and in sea area, respectively. The P-axes are horizontally clustered in ENE-WSW direction, whereas the T-axes are girdle-distributed in NNW direction. The geotechnical in-situ stress data in South Korea also indicate the ENE-trending maximum horizontal stress. The current crustal deformation in the Korean Peninsula is thus characterized by crustal contraction under regional ENE-WSW or E-W compression stress field. Based on the regional stress trajectories in and around East Asia, the current stress regime is interpreted to have resulted from the cooperation of westward shallow subduction of the Pacific Plate and collision of Indian and Eurasian continents, whereas the Philippine Sea plate have not a decisive effect on the stress-regime in the Korean Peninsula due to its high-angle subduction that resulted in dominant crust extension of the back-arc region. It is also interpreted that the Neotectonic crustal deformation and present-day tectonic setting of East Asia commenced with the change of the Pacific Plate motion during 5~3.2 Ma.

• Proceedings of the KSEEG Conference
• /
• 2003.04a
• /
• pp.15-18
• /
• 2003

We preliminarily describe the basic characteristics of the low-sulfidation epithermal gold deposits in East China. It can be divided into granite- and alkaline rock-related types. These gold deposits are structurally controlled by caldera, craters, diatremes and related faults, hosted in volcanic rocks, and characterized by alterations of adularia, chalcedony, quartz, sericite and calcite assemblages. The ore-forming ages are within three pulses of 180-188 Ma, 135-141 Ma, and ca. 120 Ma, which are geodynamically corresponding the collision orogenic process between North China and Yangtze cratons, transformation of the tectonic regime, and delamination of the lithosphere, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 1999.10a
• /
• pp.58-63
• /
• 1999

In and around the Korean Peninsula 22 intraplate earthquake mechanisms since 1936 were analyzed to understand the regional stress orientation and tectonics. These 22 earthquakes are largest ones in this century and may represent the characteristics of earthquake in the region. Focal mechanism of earthquakes in the region show predominant strike-slip faulting with small amount of thrust components. The average P-axis is almost horizontal ENE- WSW. Studied data are compared with neighboring intraplate region in order to understand the tectonic regime in far est Asia. In northeastern China strike-slip faulting is dominant and nearly horizontal average P-axis in ENE- WSW is very similar with the Korean Peninsula. On the other hand in the eastern part of East Sea thrust faulting is dominant and average P-axis is horizontal with ESE- WSW This indicate that not only the subducting Pacific Plate in east but also the indenting Indian Plate controls earthquake mechanism in the far east of the Eurasian Plate.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.369-380
• /
• 1996

In order to determine the emplacement time and stratigraphic position of basaltic rocks in the central part of Pohang basin, palaeomagnetic investigations were conducted on 111 samples collected from 6 sites. Formation mean built from site-mean ChRM directions is $d=340.7^{\circ}$, $i=52.2^{\circ}$ (${\alpha}_{95}=6.0^{\circ}$, k=91) in the geographic coordinates. If "tilt" correction is applied regarding the plane perpendicular to the side walls of columnar joint as palaeohorizon, the formation mean becomes $d=328.7^{\circ}$, $i=43.8^{\circ}$ (${\alpha}_{95}=17.1^{\circ}$, k=13). It is to be noticed that the formation mean is deflected significantly (about $20{\sim}30^{\circ}$) counterclockwise from the Tertiary reference geomagnetic field of Eurasia, independent of "tilt" correction. This situation is very different from that of clockwise rotation of ChRM directions which has been ubiquitously observed in other Tertiary basins of south Korea, and indicates sinistral regional simple-shearing during the emplacement times of the basaltic rocks. Considering previous palaeomagnetic and AMS (anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility) data from other Tertiary regions of south Korea, the time of this sinistral shearing should be 15 Ma or directly thereafter, and this time point represents inversion from extensional to compressional tectonic regime. Magnetic foliation data obtained in this study indicate WNW-ESN compression during or directly after emplacement of the basaltic rocks, while it has known from regional tectonic study that the time of the WNW-ESN compression is about 15 Ma, when SW Honshu was rotated and the Korean strait was narrowed.

• The Korean Journal of Petroleum Geology
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.1-16
• /
• 2007

The southeastern Korean Peninsula has experienced crustal multi-deformations according to changes of global tectonic setting during the Cenozoic. Characteristic features of the crustal deformations in relation to major Cenozoic tectonic events are summarized as follows. (1) Collision of Indian and Eurasian continents and abrupt change of movement direction of the Pacific plate (50${\sim}$43 Ma): The collision of Indian and Eurasian continents caused the eastward extrusion of East Asia block as a trench-rollback, and then the movement direction of the Pacific plate was abruptly changed from NNW to WNW. As a result, the strong suction-force along the plate boundary produced a tensional stress field trending EW or WNW-ESE in southeastern Korea, which resultantly induced the passive intrusion of NS or NNE trending mafic dike swarm. (2) Opening of the East Sea (25${\sim}$16 Ma): The NS or NNW-SSE trending opening of the East Sea generated a dextral shear stress regime trending NNW-SSE along the eastern coast line of the Korean Peninsula. As a result, pull-apart basins were developed in right bending and overstepping parts along major dextral strike slip faults trending NNW-SSE in southeastern Korea. The basins can be divided into two types on the basis of geometry and kinematics: Parallelogram-shaped basin (rhombochasm) and wedged-shaped basin (sphenochasm), respectively. In those times, the basins and adjacent basement blocks experienced clockwise rotation and northwestward tilting contemporaneously, and the basins often experienced a kind of propagating rifting from NE toward SE. At about 17Ma, the Yonil Tectonic Line, which is the westernmost border fault of the Miocene crustal deformation in southeastern Korea, began to move as a major dextral strike slip fault. (3) Clockwise rotation of southeastern Japan Island (about 15 Ma): The collision of the Izu-Bonin Arc and southeastern Japan Island, as a result of northward movement of the Philippine sea-plate, induced the clockwise rotation of southeastern Japan Island. The event caused the NW-SE compression in the Korea Strait as a tectonic inversion, which resultantly tenninated the basin extension and caused local counterclockwise rotation of blocks in southeastern Korea. (4) E-W compression in the East Asia (after about 5 Ma): Decreasing subduction angle of the Pacific plate and eastward movement of the Amurian plate have constructed the-top-to-west thrusts and become a major cause for earthquakes in southeastern Korea until the present time.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2009.05a
• /
• pp.57-65
• /
• 2009

Selection of good mineralized area is a combination of the integration of all the available geo-scientific (i.e., geological, geochemical, and geophysical) information, extrapolation of likely features from known mineralized terrenes and the ability to be predictive. The time-space relationships of the hydrothermal deposits in the East Asia are closely related to the changing plate motions. Also, two distinctive hydrothermal systems during Mesozoic occurred in Korea: the Jurassic/Early Cretaceous deep-level ones during the Daebo orogeny and the Late Cretaceous/Tertiary shallow geothermal ones during the Bulguksa event. Both the Mesozoic geothermal system and the mineralization document a close spatial and temporal relationship with syn- to post-tectonic magmatism. The Jurassic mineral deposits were formed at the relatively high temperature and deep-crustal level from the mineralizing fluids characterized by the relatively homogeneous and similar ranges of ${\delta}^{18}O$ values, suggesting that ore-forming fluids were principally derived from spatially associated Jurassic granitoid and related pegmatite. Most of the Jurassic auriferous deposits (ca. 165-145 Ma) show fluid characteristics typical of an orogenic-type gold deposits, and were probably generated in a compressional to transpressional regime caused by an orthogonal to oblique convergence of the Izanagi Plate into the East Asian continental margin. On the other hand, Late Cretaceous ferroalloy, base-metal and precious-metal deposits in the Taebaeksan, Okcheon and Gyeongsang basins occurred as vein, replacement, breccia-pipe, porphyry-style and skarn deposits. Diverse mineralization styles represent a spatial and temporal distinction between the proximal environment of sub-volcanic activity and the distal to transitional condition derived from volcanic environments. However, Cu (-Au) or Fe-Mo-W deposits are proximal to a magmatic source, whereas polymetallic or precious-metal deposits are more distal to transitional. Strike-slip faults and caldera-related fractures together with sub-volcanic activity are associated with major faults reactivated by a northward (oblique) to northwestward (orthogonal) convergence, and have played an important role in the formation of the Cretaceous Au-Ag lode deposits (ca. 110-45 Ma) under a continental arc setting. The temporal and spatial distinctions between the two typical Mesozoic deposit styles in Korea reflect a different thermal episodes (i.e., late orogenic and post-orogenic) and ore-forming fluids related to different depths of emplacement of magma (i.e., plutonic and sub-volcanic) due to regional changes in tectonic settings.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.267-281
• /
• 2009

Cretaceous intrusive and extrusive rocks are widely distributed in the southern part of the Korean peninsula, possibly the result of intensive magmatism which occurred in response to subduction of the Pacific plate beneath the northeastern part of the Eurasian plate. Geochemical and petrological study on the Cretaceous granitic rocks of the Yeosu area were carried out in order to constrain the petrogenesis of the granitic rocks and to establish the paleotectonic environment of the southwestern part of the Korean peninsula. Igneous rocks of the Yeosu area consist of diorite, hornblende biotite pite and micrographic granite. Chondrite normalized REE patterns show generally enriched in LREE ($(La/Lu)^{cN}$=4.2-13.3). Diorites show flat to slight negative Eu anomalies while micrographic granites have strong negative Eu anomalies. The ${\Sigma}REE$ of the granites are 76.2-235 ppm, which corresponds to the range of the continental margin granite. Whole rock chemical data of the granitic rocks from the Yeosu area indicate that the rocks have characteristics of calc-alkaline series in the subalkaline field. On the A/NK 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 continental margin during the subduction of Pacific plate.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.351-363
• /
• 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.