Thermal histories of Cretaceous basins in Korea: Implications for response of the East Asian continental margin to subduction of the Paleo‐Pacific Plate

Abstract

Thermal histories of Cretaceous sedimentary basins in the Korean peninsula have been assessed to understand the response of the East Asian continental margin to subduction of the Paleo-Pacific (Izanagi) Plate. The Izanagi Plate subducted obliquely beneath the East Asian continent during the Early Cretaceous and orthogonally in the Late Cretaceous. First, the Jinan Basin, a pull-apart basin, was studied by illite crystallinity and apatite fission-track analyses. Analytical results indicate that Jinan Basin sediment was heated to a maximum temperature of approximately 287°C by burial. The sediment experienced two cooling episodes during ca 95-80 Ma and after ca 30 Ma, with a quiescent period between them. A similar cooling pattern is recognized in the Gyeongsang Basin, the largest Cretaceous basin in Korea. The Jinan and Gyeongsang Basins were cooled mainly by exhumation between ca 95 and 80 Ma, but the former was exhumed slightly earlier than the latter by transpressional force due to the subduction direction change of the Izanagi Plate. Comparison of thermal history of Korean Cretaceous basins with those of granitoids in northeastern China and the accretionary complexes in southwestern Japan reveals that the Upper Cretaceous regional exhumation of the East Asian continental margin including the Korean peninsula during ca 95-80 Ma was facilitated by the subduction of the Izanagi-Pacific ridge, which migrated northeastwards with time, resulting in the end of regional exhumation at ca 80 Ma in this region.

Provenance Analysis of Lower Cretaceous Sindong Group Sandstones in the Gyeongsang Basin, Korea, Using Integrated Petrography, Quartz Sem-Cathodoluminescence, and Zircon Zr/Hf Analysis

“…The Gyeongsang Basin experienced maximum burial paleotemperatures of about 260uC (Lim et al 2003) and underwent two cooling episodes (ca. 95-80 Ma and after 15 Ma), with the first rapid exhumation being facilitated by the subduction of the Izanagi-Pacific Plate ridge (Choi and Lee 2011).…”

Raman Spectroscopy Detects Amorphous Carbon in an Enigmatic Egg From the Upper Cretaceous Wido Volcanics of South Korea

“…We suggest that comparing the Raman spectra of fossil eggshells (or any other type of fossil that preserve carbonaceous matter) from where Cretaceous volcanism and magmatism were intense (e.g., northeastern and southern China, Korea, and Japan; Chough and Sohn, 2010;Pan et al, 2013;Song et al, 2015;Zhai et al, 2016;Ryu and Lee, 2017) to those from relatively stable regions (e.g., inland China and Mongolia; Eberth et al, 2009;Zhang et al, 2014;Eberth, 2018) in East Asia would make it possible to assess the potential relationship between the thermal maturity of fossils and the tectonic setting in a more systematic way (see also Lee, 2011 andSong et al, 2015 for the thermal history of northeastern China, Korea, and Japan where are relevant to the continental margin tectonism).…”

Post‐rift Tectonic History of the Songliao Basin, NE China: Cooling Events and Post‐rift Unconformities Driven by Orogenic Pulses From Plate Boundaries

“…A review of recent geochronological data in the eastern Asian continent (Song et al, ) shows that this period also marked the culmination of major tectonic (Choi & Lee, ; Grimmer et al, ), magmatic (Akinin & Miller, ; Cheng & Mao, ; Osozawa, ; Sagong et al, ; Soloviev et al, ; Tikhomirov et al, ), and metamorphic (Aoki et al, ; Bogdanov & Khain, ; Itaya et al, ; Ota & Kaneko, ; Wallis et al, ; Yui et al, ) processes along the continental margin, indicating that the short time interval ~88–86 Ma constrained the Late Cretaceous climax of the compression across eastern Asia. Comparative analysis shows that compression and exhumation in this period swept over the continental margin from east to west (Song et al, ).…”