• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.409-425
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• 2019

Marine terraces, a step-like landform, are important geologic markers that provide tectonic information during the Quaternary Period. Marine terraces are well developed along all coastlines(East, West, and South) of the Korean Peninsula, those along the East coastline are the most distinctive. The marine terraces of the East coastline are classified into 4-6 flights that are several meters or several tens of meters above the present sea level. It is believed that these terraces, except for the lowest one, were formed in the middle Pleistocene. In the base of the OSL age dating results and Blake excursion events of magnetostratigraphy, the $2^{nd}$ and $3^{rd}$ terraces are correlated to the last interglacial stage. Considering the marine terraces linked to a sea-level curve of the Pleistocene, it is thought that regional tectonic movements have uplifted the East coastal area since the middle Pleistocene. Besides, former shorelines of each terrace have varied elevations from Gangreung to Busan bay, which can be divided into four regions, namely, Gangreung-Yonghanri(I), Homikot-Najung(II), Najung-Bangeojin(III), and Waesung-Busan Bay(IV). The former shorelines of each terrace at both Gangreung-Yonghanri(I) and Najung-Bangeojin(III) are higher than those in the other two regions, due to block movements by regional faults such as the Ocheon Fault or its subsidiaries, the Gampo Lineament and Ulsan Fault. Uplift rate of the East coast ranges from 0.2 m/ky to 0.3 m/ky, but each region shows different uplift rate.