Early Middle Paleozoic Intraplate Orogeny in the Ogcheon Belt (South Korea): A new insight on the Paleozoic buildup of east Asia

The polycyclic Ogcheon belt of South Korea represents the boundary between two Precambrian blocks. Investigation on the timing and kinematics of the block agglomeration is of considerable bearing on the understanding of the constitution of the Asian continent. We report here structural evidence showing that the earlier tectonic event dates back to early middle Paleozoic (the “Ogcheon tectonism” or “orogeny”). The ductile piling up of nappes of the Ogcheon belt corresponds to an intracontinental orogeny involving the opening and the subsequent closure of an aborted rift and not of a wide oceanic area. The nappes contain unequivocal evidence for ductile shearing with a northwest over southeast sense of movement. Field evidence includes the presence of S1 and S1–2 foliations bearing an extensive stretching lineation perpendicular to the belt, associated with a strongly noncoaxial deformation regime. The F1 isoclinal folds are commonly “A type” and sheath folds whose axes are parallel to the stretching lineation, whereas the southeast facing F2 recumbent folds have subhorizontal axes parallel to the belt. All lines of evidence (unconformity, superposed deformations, age of the metamorphism, etc…) imply that the D1–2 “Ogcheon tectonism” is pre‐middle Carboniferous (Late Silurian‐Early Devonian). The subsequent Indosinian (Middle Triassic) F3 upright synfolial folds that trend NNE‐SSW and later structures clearly overprint the middle Paleozoic ductile thrusts and isoclinal folds. The early Paleozoic Ogcheon Supergroup is formed of a thick volcanosedimentary pile deposited above an early platform sequence in a rift basin. On the basis of the geochemical characteristics of the metavolcanics, it appears that oceanization did not occur and Ogcheon rift aborted soon after it was formed. We suggest that middle Paleozoic ductile nappe structures have been formed by the structural inversion of the rift extensional features. During the ductile stacking episode, the early formed foliation and isoclinal folds have been folded in a continuum during the same tectonic event. Middle Carboniferous terrigenous formations have been deposited unconformably upon folded and thrust older rocks. A tentative correlation with early Paleozoic Imjingang, Qinling and Cathaysian belts within the Asian continent reveals that Ogcheon rift was emplaced within the South China plate and that Imjingang belt should represent the limit between North and South China blocks in the Korean peninsula.