Extensional deformation along the southern boundary of the Gyeonggi Massif, South Korea: structural characteristics, age constraints, and tectonic implications

Abstract

The Permo-Triassic collision of the North and South China blocks caused the development of the Dabie-Sulu Orogen in China and Songrim Orogen in the Korean Peninsula. Extension after this collision is known from the Dabie-Sulu Orogen, but post-orogenic extension is not well defined in the Korean Peninsula. Extensional deformation along the southern boundary of the Gyeonggi Massif in Korea is characterized by top-down-to-the-south ductile shearing and subsequent brittle normal faulting, and was predated by regional metamorphism and north-vergent contractional deformation. Extension occurred between similar to 220 and 185 Ma based on the ages of pre-extensional regional metamorphism and post-extensional pluton emplacement. Ar-40/Ar-39 dating of syn-extensional muscovite in quartz-mica mylonite yields an age of 187.8 +/- A 5.6 (2 sigma) Ma, in agreement with constraints from structural relationships. Together with the extensional deformation identified along the northern boundary of the Gyeonggi Massif (similar to 226 Ma), the extension along the southern boundary is probably related to the exhumation of the massif during late-orogenic or post-orogenic extension associated with the Songrim Orogeny of the Korean Peninsula and forms an important event in the Phanerozoic crustal evolution of East Asia.