Geology of South Korea

[1] Despite the country's small size, its geology is diverse, containing rocks formed during the Precambrian to Cenozoic eras.

[3] The Korea Peninsula formed mostly after the Paleoproterozoic (2,500 to 1,600 million years ago), and Archean rocks appear in some regions.

The early Paleozoic Joseon Supergroup in Korea has been divided into the Taebaek, Yeongwol, Pyeongchang, Yongtan and Mungyeong groups, depending on the sequence of lithology.

[7][8][9] From the Carboniferous to Triassic, the Pyeongan Supergroup was formed, and it was distributed in the Pyeongnam Basin and Okcheon Folded Zone.

South Korea has no Silurian or Devonian sedimentary rocks, but sedimentation began again on a sinking paralic platform inland from the proto-Japan as it formed beginning in the Carboniferous.

The event generated dextral strike-slip faulting in intermontane troughs in the Kyonggi Massif, in which the terrestrial sediments of the Taedong Supergroup accumulated.

The Taebo orogeny in the Jurassic is broadly similar to the Yenshanian tectonism in China, although its effects are believed to have been less dramatic.

Yangbuk Group conglomerates and alluvial fan sediments gathered in small fault-bounded basins in the Miocene.