• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.328-336
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• 2007

A piston core (587 cm long) was recovered from the upper slope of a seamount in the Korea Plateau. Three episodes of sedimentation were identified based on sedimentary facies, grain size distribution, carbonate constituents and initial $^{87}Sr/^{86}Sr$ ratio of carbonates. The lower part of the core, Unit I-a (core depth $465{\sim}587cm$) is composed of shallow marine carbonate sediments the deposited by storm surges, and is about $13{\sim}15Ma$ (Middle Miocene) based on $^{87}Sr/^{86}Sr$ initial ratio. This suggests that the depositional environment was relatively shallow enough to be influenced by storm activities. Unit I-b (core depth $431{\sim}465cm$) is mostly composed of turbidites, and Sr isotope ages of bivalves and planktonic formaminifera are about $11{\sim}14\;and\;6{\sim}13Ma$, respectively. This indicates that the Korea Plateau maintained shallow water condition until 11 Ma, and began to subside since then. However, planktonic foraminifera were deposited after 11 Ma and redeposited as turbidites as a mixture of planktonic foraminifera and older shallow marine carbonates about 6 Ma ago. Unit II (core depth $0{\sim}431cm$) is composed of pelagic sediments, and the Sr isotope age is younger than 1 Ma, thus the time gap is about 5 Ma at the unconformity. About 1 Ma ago, the Korea Plateau subsided down to a water depth of about 600 m. The sampling locality was intermittently influenced by debris flows and/or turbidity currents along the slope, resulting the deposition of re-transported coarse shallow marine and volcaniclastic sediments.