Whereabouts of the collision belt between the Sino-Korean and South China blocks in the northeast Asian margin

Abstract

This study delineates the collision belt (late Permian-Triassic) between the Sino-Korean and South China blocks in the northeast Asian margin, based on correlation of endemic fossil components (corals) in shallow marine deposits of the Silurian and Devonian, identified in both south China and southwest and northeast Japan. The Qinling-Dabie Belt in China was offset by the left-lateral Tanlu Fault and contiguous to the Sulu Belt. The Imjingang Belt in the Korean peninsula was, in turn, offset by the right-lateral South Korean Tectonic Line, and extended eastward to the Namhae Belt (newly named). Further east, it extended to the Higo Belt and the Kitakami Terrane in Japan, prior to the opening of the East Sea in the Miocene. The collision in the northeastern Asian margin in the Triassic was superposed by contemporaneous subduction of the paleo-Pacific Plate.