The Okcheon Supergroup in the Lake Chungju area, Korea: Neoproterozoic volcanic and glaciogenic sedimentary successions in a rift basin

Abstract

The Okcheon Belt in southern Korea is an NE-SW trending fold-and-thrust belt consisting of two sedimentary basins of different origins: namely, the Chungcheong Basin and the Taebaeksan Basin. The Chungcheong Basin was a Neoproterozoic rift basin belonging to the South China Craton, while the Taebaeksan Basin was a Paleozoic shallow marine to non-marine sedimentary basin fringing the Sino-Korean Craton. These two basins merged to form the Okcheon Belt in the early Triassic by the collision of Sino-Korean and South China cratons and their boundary is currently demarcated by the South Korean Tectonic Line. The Okcheon Supergroup is herein refined to include the Neoproterozoic volcanic and glaciogenic sedimentary successions deposited in the Chungcheong Basin and is divided into the two groups: the Chungju Group consists of the Gyemyeongsan Formation, Hyangsanni Dolomite, and Daehyangsan Quartzite and the Suanbo Group is proposed to include the Munjuri, Hwanggangni, Myeongori, and Gounni formations in ascending order. The Myeongori Formation is emended to comprise the Geumgang Limestone and the Seochangni members. This lithostratigraphic scheme is correlatable with that of the Nanhua Basin in South China, suggesting that the Chungcheong Basin was an eastward extension of the Nanhua Basin during the Neoproterozoic. The geological structure of the Okcheon Supergroup in the Lake Chungju area is characterized by a number of isoclinal to tight, frequently overturned, anticlines and synclines. No major thrust faults were recognized within the study area, except the constraining bend of the South Korean Tectonic Line. Three deformational phases are empirically differentiated: D1 deformation most strongly affected the rocks of the Okcheon Supergroup; D2 deformation was produced by the collision between the Sino-Korean and South China cratons; and D3 deformation is represented by normal to strike-slip faults. D1, D2 and D3 deformational phases are referred to the Okcheon (mid-Paleozoic), Songnim (Triassic) and/or Daebo (Jurassic) orogenies, and post-Jurassic events, respectively. The Chungcheong Basin was initiated as a part of an intracratonic rift basin (Nanhua Basin) within the South China Craton in association with early Neoproterozoic break-up event of the supercontinent Rodinia. The bimodal volcanic succession of the Gyemyeongsan Formation corresponds to the initial rift episode of the Chungcheong Basin, and was succeeded by shallow marine Hyangsanni Dolomite and Daehyangsan Quartzite. The second phase of rifting at ∼750 Ma accumulated a thick bimodal volcanic succession of the Munjuri Formation which is overlain by the diamictites of the Hwanggangni Formation representing the Cryogenian global glacial event, snowball Earth. The immediately-succeeding cap carbonate, Geumgang Limestone Member of the Myeongori Formation, recorded the deglaciation event. The Seochangni Member of the Myeongori Formation is characterized by dark gray slate/phyllite facies indicating a poorly-oxygenated basin during the Ediacaran. No stratigraphic unit overlying the Gounni Formation, the youngest Neoproterozoic formation of the Okcheon Supergroup, occurs in the Lake Chungju area, and thus little is known on the Paleozoic tectonic evolution of the Chungcheong Basin. It is inferred that the medium-pressure type regional metamorphism and the predominance of ductile deformation of the Okcheon Supergroup can be attributed to the mid-Paleozoic Okcheon Orogeny which would have been in line with the Wuyun Orogeny of South China. The South China and Sino-Korean cratons should have been drifted away from the Gondwana sometime during the mid-Paleozoic and collided to form the East Asian continent at ∼250 Ma.