• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.63-76
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• 2012

Tachylite, black basaltic glass formed by the rapid cooling of molten basalt, locally occurs at the Basaltic Agglomerate Formation (BAF), the lowest formation of Ulleung Island. The purposes of this study are to characterize the occurrence and mineralogy of tachylite and to elucidate its formation condition, with emphasis on its fracture pattern, which can serve as implications for the early volcanic activity of Ulleung Island. To this end, we investigated the occurrence pattern of tachylite in the field and carried out mineralogical analyses using optical microscope, XRD, EPMA, and SEM. Tachylite occurs at the chilled margin of basic dikes which are distributed in Naesujeon, Dodong and Jeodong seasides, Turtle Rock, and Yaerimwon, whose widths vary from several cm to 10 cm. It is evident that the outer surface of tachylite is dense and smooth, whereas the inner surface, if fractured, is characterized by conchoidal fracture. The matrix of tachylite consists of amorphous, glass and some fine-grained phenocrysts present in tachylite include biotite, anorthoclase, sanidine, plagioclase, hornblende, and Fe-Ti oxides. The fracture patterns characteristic of tachylite are subrounded, oval, or less commonly polygonal, bounded by joints to form globule or lump. Taking into account texture and mineralogy, tachylite is interpreted to have undergone little subsequent alteration at low temperature via hydration or hydrolysis that could form clay minerals after it was formed. Because tachylite with peculiar fractures occurs as dikes in a close association with BAF, its presence is considered as reliable evidence that when tachylite formed, the most part of BAF was still under subaqueous conditions, or at least saturated with seawater.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.489-500
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• 2017

It is not rare that pseudotachylite, dark colored rock with glassy texture, is recognizable in deep core samples drilled up to 900 m from the surface. Pseudotachylite with widths varying few to 20 cm is sharply contacted or interlayered with the host rocks composed of Jurassic granite and Precambrian amphibolite gneiss, showing moderately ductile deformation or slight folding. Pseudotachylite occurring at varying depths in the deep drill core are slightly different in texture and thickness. There is evidence of fault gouge at shallower depths, although brittle deformation is pervasive in most drill cores and pseudotachylite is identified at random depth intervals. Under scanning electron microscope (SEM), it is evident that the surface of pseudotachylite is characterized by a smooth, glassy matrix even at micrometer scale and there is little residual fragments in the glass matrix except microcrystals of quartz with embayed shape. Such textural evidence strongly supports the idea that the pseudotachylite was generated through the friction melting related to strong seismic events. Based on X-ray diffraction (XRD) quantitative analysis, it consists of primary minerals such as quartz, feldspars, biotite, amphibole and secondary minerals including clay minerals, calcite and glassy materials. Such mineralogical features of fractured materials including pseudotachylite indicate that the fractured zone might form at low temperatures possibly below $300^{\circ}C$, which implies that the seismic activity related to the formation of pseudotachylite took place at shallow depths, possibly at most 10 km. Identification and characterization of pseudotachylite provide insight into a better understanding of the paleoseismic activity of deep grounds and fundamental information on the stability of candidate disposal sites for high-level radioactive waste.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.157-169
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• 2019

Pseudotachylytes, produced by frictional heating during seismic slip, provide information that is critical to understanding the physics of earthquakes. We report the results of occurrence, structural characteristics, scanning electron microscopic observation and geochemical analysis of pseudotachylytes, which is presumed to have formed after the Late Cretaceous in outcrops of the Paleoproterozoic granitic gneiss on the Bulil waterfall of the Jirisan area, Yeongnam massif, Korea. Fault rocks, which are the products of brittle deformation under the same shear stress regime in the study area, are classified as pseudotachylyte and foliated cataclasite. The occurrences of pseudotachylyte identified on the basis of thickness and morphology are fault vein-type and injection vein-type pseudotachylyte. A number of fault vein-type pseudotachylytes occur as thin (as thick as 2 cm) layers generated on the fault plane, and are cutting general foliation and sheared foliation developed in granitic gneiss. Smaller injection vein-type pseudotachylytes are found along the fault vein-type pseudotachylytes, and appear in a variety of shapes based on field occurrence and vein geometry. At a first glance fault vein-type seudotachylyte looks like a mafic vein, but it has a chemical composition almost identical to the wall rock of granitic gneiss. Also, it has many subrounded clasts which consist predominantly of quartz, feldspar, biotite and secondary minerals including clay minerals, calcite and glassy materials. Embayed clasts, phenocryst with reaction rim, oxide droplets, amygdules, and flow structures are also observed. All of these evidences indicate the pseudotachylyte formed due to frictional melting of the wall rock minerals during fault slip related to strong seismic faulting events in the shallow depth of low temperature-low pressure. Further studies will be conducted to determine the age and mechanical aspect of the pseudotachylyte formation.

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.277-291
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• 2021

A mineral phase contained in a rock sample can be categorized into several crystal populations with distinct origins and crystal growth histories. A detailed textural and mineralogical investigation on a clinopyroxene megacryst-bearing porphyritic dike with glassy chilled margins (tachylyte) in the southeastern Ulleung Island was conducted to decipher its crystal populations. During this study, we have measured glass and mineral major element compositions using electron microprobe analyzer. Tachylyte has a homogeneous trachyandesitic composition without any significant alteration characteristics, suggesting that its composition may represent the original melt composition of the dike. Clinopyroxene and plagioclase larger than 0.5 mm are antecrysts equilibrated with a more primitive melt composition than trachyandesitic tachylyte. Meanwhile, clinopyroxene and plagioclase microlites (<0.5mm) are regarded as primocrysts crystallized in-situ. According to our results, all clinopyroxenes in the Stage I Dodong Basalt are sectored into basal and prismatic parts, whose compositional ranges systematically vary: [Mg+Si+Fe]_basal ↔ [Al+Ti+Na]_prism. Therefore, we suggest that the effect of the elemental partitioning caused by the clinopyroxene sector zonation in Stage I volcanism should be considered in the future works.