Stratigraphy of the Central Sub-basin of the Gunsan Basin, Offshore Western Korea

Strata of the Central sub-basin in the Gunsan Basin, offshore, western Korea were analyzed by using integrated stratigraphy approach. As a result, five distinct unconformity-bounded units are recognized in the basin: Sequence I (Cretaceous or older(?)), Sequence II (Late Cretaceous), Sequence III (late Late Cretaceous or younger(?)), Sequence IV (Early Miocene or older(?)), Sequence V (Middle Miocene). Since the late Late Jurassic, along the Tan-Lu fault system wrench faults were developed and caused a series of small-scale strike-slip extensional basins. The sinistral movement of wrench faults continued until the Late Cretaceous forming a large-scale pull-apart basin. However, in the Early Tertiary, the orogenic event, called the Himalayan Orogeny, caused basin to be modified. From Late Eocene to Early Miocene, tectonic inversion accompanied by NW strike folds occurred in the East China. Therefore, the late Eocene to Oligocene was the main period of severe tectonic modification of the basin and Oligocene formation is hiatus. The rate of tectonic movements in Gunsan Basin slowed considerably. In that case, thermal subsidence up to the present has maintained with marine transgressions, which enable this area to change into the land part of the present basin.