Evolution of the Dok Do seamounts, Ulleung Basin, East Sea: constraints based on the reconstruction of virtual geomagnetic poles using paleomagnetic data

Abstract

In the Ulleung Basin, East Sea, the Dok Do seamount group comprises Dok Do (Dok Island), consisting of very small islets/rocks and a large submerged volcanic edifice, and two voluminous tablemounts, Simheungtaek and Isabu. We attempted to reconstruct the evolution of these seamounts, using virtual geomagnetic poles (VGPs) determined by the least-squares and the seminorm magnetization methods, with 1,500 m upward continued magnetic anomalies. The VGPs of Dok Do with normal dipole anomaly, and of Simheungtaek with normal dipole anomaly are located near the present magnetic pole. The VGP of Isabu with normal dipole anomaly is located at low latitude, presumably due to overprints of reversals in the Tertiary, and the distortion of magnetization and structures associated with volcanism after its formation. In contrast to the tablemounts, magnetic anomalies over Dok Do are a combination of both normal polarity and reversed polarity dipoles in the northern hemisphere, indicating that Dok Do has had at least two major eruptions, one during normal and another during reversed polarity intervals. From these results, and information on the ages of the seamounts (either published radiometric ages of subaerial volcanic rocks, or ages reconstructed in terms of reported elastic thickness incorporated into an existing cooling plate model), we tentatively propose that (1) Isabu formed first, during a normal polarity interval after the opening of the East Sea had ceased; (2) this was followed by an initial and subsequent large eruption of Dok Do during a normal polarity and a reversed polarity interval after about 5 Ma; and (3) the formation of Simheungtaek occurred in between that of Isabu and Dok Do in a normal polarity interval. The pattern of normal/reversed magnetization is not inconsistent with the geomagnetic polarity timescale for at least the last 5 Ma. Nevertheless, precise ages of formation would need verification by additional geophysical/geochemical constraints. Evaluating various possible models explaining the successive formation of the Dok Do seamounts, we currently favor fracturing and volcanism related to compression-induced weakening of the extensional field from the late Miocene to Pliocene after the opening of the East Sea.