Eocene extensional tectonics in the Amakusa region, northern Ryukyu arc

Abstract

Paleogene surface tectonics in Japan is not well understood because of the paucity of onshore Paleogene stratigraphic records except for those from accretionary complexes. Paralic Paleogene formations remaining in SW Japan are usually so thin that it is difficult to decipher the tectonics from them. However, the Eocene paralic sedimentary package with a thickness of kilometers indicates syn‐depositional tectonic subsidence by a few kilometers in the Amakusa archipelago, west of Kyushu Island. Thus, we made a detailed geological map of the Eocene formations in an area of ~50 square kilometers in the northwestern part of the archipelago. We identified NE‐SW and NW‐SE trending normal faults, most of which were recognized by previous researchers, and also discovered low‐angle faults. NW‐SE trending ones are known to be of the Miocene. NE‐SW trending and low‐angle normal faults are the oldest map‐scale structures in the Eocene ones. It is not obvious within the above‐mentioned area whether those normal faults are accompanied by growth strata. However, the significant southeastward thickening of the Eocene formations across the Amakusa archipelago suggests that they filled a large half graben with the basin margin fault along the eastern side of the archipelago. This basin model is consistent with the N‐S to NW‐SE transport directions of the low‐angle and NE‐SW trending normal faults. Since many NE‐SW to EW trending Eocene grabens were formed in the offshore regions west of Kyushu Island and in the East China Sea, the Amakusa region was probably a northeastern branch of the rift system. The geologic structures and depositional ages of the Eocene formations indicate that the Eocene extensional tectonics removed the overlying strata to some extent for the high‐P/T Takahama Metamorphic Rocks which crops out to the south of our study area.