DiscoverSendai,
Discover Tohoku
LocationSendai

A Field Guide to Geibikei gorge and Chūson-ji temple
20 August 2023

of IchinosekiTokyoIchinoseki at Iwate prefecture comprise mainly
Mesozoic and Paleozoic rocks, and are divided
tectonically into the Northern Kitakami Belt(NKB) and the Southern Kitakami Belt (SKB).

NKB
SKB

http://www.geibikei.co.jp/en/index.html

Regional Geology

NKB is composed of a Jurassic accretionary
complex which includes Carboniferous toPermian limestone, Permian to Early
Jurassic chert and Late Jurassic clasticrocks.

https://www.chusonji.or.jp/language_en/index.html

General Overview

Ichinoseki

is a large gorge in Iwate Prefecture,
1 Geibikei
Tohoku. Visitors are delighted with thescenery of the limestone cliff that is experienced
through a traditional boat. The boatman uses apole to cruse and maneuver along the river.

temple is an Ancient Buddhist
2 Chūson-ji
temple in Tohoku, known as the Golden
Temple because the interior and exterior of
the Main Hall (Konjikidō) are plated withglittering gold. The gold probably originatedfrom old gold mines around Iwate

Satish-Kumar, M., et al., 2021.

The SKB is composed of pre-Silurian rocks
Ultramafic Rocks and Metamorphic Complex,
These rocks are unconformably overlain by Silurian
to Early Cretaceous shallow marine to non-marine
sediments.
In both NBK and SKB strata are overlain by
Early Cretaceous basic to acidic volcanic rocks.

Field Excursion
Mid Permian
Mudstone,slate,sandstone

Departing from Sendai city (8:00), thebus will go to the Geibikei passing
through the Japan volcanic front
where Tertiary volcanic successions
are widely deposited. In the second
half of the course, we begin to enter
the accretion complex of the SKB
before reaching the ﬁrst stop point(9.30).

Late Permian
Mudstone,slate,sandstone

Mid-Permian
Conglomerate andsandstone

Early Permian
mudstone

Early Permian
limestone

We move to Chūson-ji temple oursecond stop point right after lunch(13.00), traveling cut-through Paleozoic
and Mesozoic rocks toward young
tertiary volcanic deposits. Chūson-ji issituated on the top of a hill named
Kanzan composed of Miocene-Pliocene
welded tuff/sandstone.

N1km+Stop 1+++ + + ++ + +Stop 2

Ichinoseki+ +++ + +Pliocene
Conglomeratemudstone

Pliocene
Welded Tuff

MioceneSandstone

Early Cretaceous
GraniteGeibi Gorge (Geibikei)++++ +At Geibikei we will observe thePermian limestone of the Nishikori
formation and its equivalent. The
stunning scenery of the limestone
cliffs that stand up to 120 meters tallwill be observed by traditional boat as
we will go along the Satetsu riveraccompanied
bythelocal
performance of the boatman's song.

猊⿐溪Carboniferous
limestone,sandstone,
mudstone,tuff,basalt

Early Cretaceous
Basalt-andesite lava

After light hiking (13:30), we arrive at theancient buddhis temple established at+ ~850 by a Buddhism priest named Ennin(Jikaku Daishi) and in the early 12th+century Fujiwara family constructed+ massive temple complex and hall in thissite. The site well-known as "The GoldenTemple". It is derived from The Konjikidō
golden hall which preserves the gold
statue of Amida Nyorai (The Buddha ofInﬁnite Light). Finally, we will back to+++Sendai after exploring the Chūson-ji
Early CretaceousHbl-Bt Tonalite complex (16.00).

中尊寺

Chūson-ji Temple