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Evolution of sedimentary basin in the southwestern Ulleung Basin margin: Sequence stratigraphy and geologic structures

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Abstract

This study presents an evolutionary history of the southwestern Ulleung Basin margin on the basis of sequence stratigraphic and structural analyses of multi-channel seismic reflection profiles. Ten sequences and geologic structures identified in the late Tertiary strate suggest three distinct stages of basin development in the early Miocene to Pliocene. In the early Miocene, the basin, bordered on the west by a steep basement fault with normal sense of offset, experienced a rapid subsidence giving rise to a deep-marine depositional setting. The movement of the basin-bordering fault ceased at the end of the early Miocene, then the basin subsidence progressively slowed, which, coupled with increased terrigenous sediment input, resulted in the development of prograding shelf margin. In the late middle to late Miocene time (12.5–5.5 Ma), the basin was characterized by compressional readjustment by thrusting and folding. The sequential effects of this tectonic event include local and regional angular unconformities, progradation-dominant shelf-margin depositional system and frequent triggering of large-scale mass-failures in front of the thrust belt. Since the early Pliocene, the basin has progressively subsided again, forming aggradation-dominant shelf-slope system.

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Yoon, S.H., Park, S.J. & Chough, S.K. Evolution of sedimentary basin in the southwestern Ulleung Basin margin: Sequence stratigraphy and geologic structures. Geosci J 6, 149–159 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03028286

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03028286

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