Palaeomagnetic Study of Sedimentary and Igneous Rocks in the Yangsan Strike-slip Fault Area, SE Korea

양산단층지역에 분포하는 퇴적암 및 화성암류에 대한 고자기 연구

It is a well known fact that the remanent magnetization direction of the Tertiary rocks is deflected significantly clockwise (about $50^{\circ}$) in the Tertiary basins of the southeastern part of Korean peninsula. This fact has been interpreted as an evidence of north-south spreading of the East Sea (Sea of Japan) and dextral strike-slip motion of the Yangsan fault. As deflection (rotation) of remanent magnetizations is frequently reported from various regions of the world in the vicinities of strike-slip fault, such phenomena are to be expected in the Yangsan fault region also. It was the purpose of this study to clarify whether such premise is right or not. A total of 445 independently oriented core samples were collected from Cretaceous rocks of various lithology (sedimentary rocks, andesites and I-type granites) in the Yangsan fault area. In spite of through AF and thermal demagnetization experiments, no sign of remanent magnetization deflection was found. Instead, palaeomagnetic poles calculated from formation-mean ChRM directions are very similar to those of contemporary (Barremian, and late Cretaceous-Tertiary) sedimentary and plutonic rocks in the other parts of $Ky{\check{o}}ngsang$ basin as well as those of China. Therefore, possibility of tilting of granite plutons and horizontal block rotation of study area is excluded. It is also concluded that the Yangsan fault did not take any significant role in the Cenozoic tectonic evolution of southeast Korea and the East Sea region. The boundary between rotated and unrotated region of remanent magnetization is not the Yangsan fault line, but must lie further east of it.