Chapter 1 - Introduction

Abstract

This chapter introduces geologically unique Korean Seas (The Yellow Sea, Sea of Japan, and East China Sea). An airborne magnetic survey was conducted in the Yellow and South Sea and the southern part of the East Sea. Regional basin-scale studies on the concession blocks were made by the Marathon Oil Company and the Korea National Oil Corporation based on gravity, magnetic, seismic, and drilling data. Attempts have been made by the Korea Institute of Geology, Mining, and Materials mapping projects since the early 1970s to obtain data on the geological structure of the shallow portions of the Yellow Sea. Problems related to the geologic structure and tectonics, stratigraphy and sequence stratigraphy, sedimentary facies and processes, and the origin and development of the seas around the Korean Peninsula include the epicontinental Yellow Sea and the shelf of the northern East China Sea, the East Sea with a narrow continental shelf and deep basins, and the South Sea with numerous rocky embayment.