Tectonic and stratigraphic significance of the Middle Ordovician carbonate breccias in the Ogcheon Belt, South Korea
Authors: Ryu In‐Chang 
Published: March 2003

Abstract Carbonate breccias occur sporadically in the Lower–Middle Ordovician Maggol Limestone exposed in the Taebacksan Basin in the northeastern part of the northeast–southwest‐trending Ogcheon Belt, South Korea. These carbonate breccias have been previously interpreted as intraformational or fault‐related breccias. Thus, little attention has been focused on tectonic and stratigraphic significance of these carbonate breccias. The present study, however, indicates that the majority of these carbonate breccias are solution–collapse breccias, which are causally linked to paleokarstification. Carbonate facies analysis in conjunction with conodont biostratigraphy suggests that an overall regression toward the top of the Maggol Limestone probably culminated in subaerial exposure of platform carbonates during the early Middle Ordovician (earliest Darriwilian). Extensive subaerial exposure of platform carbonates resulted in paleokarst‐related solution–collapse breccias in the upper Maggol Limestone. This subaerial exposure event is manifested as a major paleokarst unconformity at the Sauk–Tippecanoe sequence boundary elsewhere beneath the Middle Ordovician succession and its equivalents, most notably North America and North China. Due to its global extent, this paleokarst unconformity has been viewed as a product of second‐ or third‐order eustatic sealevel drop during the early Middle Ordovician. Although a paleokarst breccia zone is recognized beneath the Middle Ordovician succession in South Korea, the Sauk–Tippecanoe sequence boundary appears to be a conformable transgressive surface on the top of the paleokarst breccia zone in the upper Maggol Limestone. The paleokarst breccia zone beneath the conformable transgressive surface is represented by a thinning‐upward stack of exposure‐capped tidal flat‐dominated cycles that are closely associated with multiple occurrences of paleokarst‐related solution–collapse breccias. This paleokarst breccia zone was a likely consequence of repeated fourth‐ and fifth‐order sealevel fluctuations. It suggests that second‐ and third‐order eustatic sealevel drop may have been significantly tempered by substantial tectonic subsidence near the end of the Maggol deposition. The tectonic subsidence in the basin is also evidenced by the occurrence of coeval off‐platform lowstand siliciclastic quartzite lenses as well as debris flow carbonate breccias (i.e. the Yemi Breccia). With the continued tectonic subsidence, subsequent rise in the eustatic cycle caused drowning and deep flooding of carbonate platform, forming a transgressive surface on the top of the paleokarst breccia zone. This tectonic implication contrasts notably with the slowly subsiding carbonate platform model for the basin as has been previously interpreted. Thus, it is proposed that the Taebacksan Basin in the northeastern part of the Ogcheon Belt evolved from a slowly subsiding carbonate platform to a rapidly subsiding intracontinental rift basin during the early Middle Ordovician. The proposed tectonic model in the basin gives much better insight to unravel the stratigraphic response to tectonic evolution of the Ogcheon Belt, which remains an enigmatic feature in formulating a tectonic framework of the Korean peninsula. The present study also provides a good example that the falling part of the eustatic sealevel cycle may not produce a significant event in a rapidly subsiding basin where the rate of eustatic fall always remained lower than the rate of subsidence.