The Contribution of Pre-Existing Structures during the Structural Inversion in Cretaceous Sedimentary Rocks on Geoje Island, SE Korea

Structural inversion refers to the reverse reactivation of extensional faults that influence basin shortening accommodated by contractional faults or folds. On the Korean peninsula, Miocene inversion structures have been found, but the Cretaceous rocks on Geoje Island may have undergone inversion as early as the Upper Cretaceous. To evaluate the structural inversion on Geoje Island, located on the eastern side of South Korea, and to determine the effects of preexisting weakness zones, field-based geometric and kinematic analyses of faults were performed. The lithology of Geoje Island is dominated by hornfelsified shale, siltstone, and sandstone in the Upper-Cretaceous Seongpori formation. NE and NW-oblique normal faults, conjugate strike-slip (NW-sinistral transpressional and E-W-dextral transtensional) faults, and NE-dextral transpressional faults are the most prominent structural features in Geoje Island. Structural inversion on Geoje Island was evidenced by the sinistral and dextral transpressional reactivation of the NW and NE-trending oblique normal faults respectively, under WNW-ESE/NW-SE compression, which was the orientation of the compressive stress during the Late Cretaceous to Early Cenozoic.