Transition from buckling to subduction on strike-slip continental margins; evidence from the East Sea (Japan Sea)

Initiation of subduction is rarely encountered in modern tectonic environments due to its ephemeral and destructive nature. We report the geological and geophysical evidence indicating a transitional phase from buckling to embryonic subduction along the eastern Korean margin. The transition appears...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geology (Boulder) 2018-07, Vol.46 (7), p.603-606
Main Authors: Kim, Gi-Bom, Yoon, Seok-Hoon, Kim, Seung-Sep, So, Byung-Dal
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activation
applied (geophysical surveys & methods)
Asia
Buckling
compression tectonics
Concretions
continental crust
continental margin
Continental margins
crust
Crustal uplift
Crusts
Embryos
Environmental geology
Far East
faults
Geological faults
Geology
geophysical methods
geophysical profiles
geophysical surveys
Geophysics
Gravity
Gravity anomalies
Japan Sea
Korea
neotectonics
North Pacific
Northwest Pacific
Oceanic analysis
Oceanic crust
Pacific Ocean
Phase transitions
Plate tectonics
Pliocene
seismic methods
seismic profiles
Slip
solid Earth (tectonophysics)
South Korea
strike-slip faults
Subduction
Subduction (geology)
surveys
tectonics
Tomography
Transitions
Ulleung Basin
Uplift
West Pacific
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Summary:Initiation of subduction is rarely encountered in modern tectonic environments due to its ephemeral and destructive nature. We report the geological and geophysical evidence indicating a transitional phase from buckling to embryonic subduction along the eastern Korean margin. The transition appears to be caused by compressional reactivation of the strike-slip boundary between the continental (Korean Peninsula) and oceanic (Ulleung Basin) crusts since the Early Pliocene. Evidence for compressional reactivation includes (1) a west-dipping major thrust and coincident crustal buckling of the Ulleung Basin; (2) an east-west structural asymmetry inferred from the gravity anomaly and P-wave tomography; and (3) ongoing crustal uplift and high-angle faults along the eastern Korean margin. The juxtaposition of underthrusting and buckling of the crust in the Ulleung Basin, and its associated ubiquitous reverse faulting on the eastern Korean margin, imply the potential development of a new subduction system along the western margin of the East Sea (Japan Sea). We propose that the East Sea comprises two incipient subduction margins (i.e., the Korean and Japanese sides), which are now competing to reach a self-sustaining subduction stage.
ISSN:0091-7613
1943-2682
DOI:10.1130/G40305.1