Chapters authored
Paleomagnetic Studies on Miocene Sequences of Hokutan and Tottori Groups in Southwest Japan: Implications for Middle Miocene Rotational Movement of Southwest Japan Block Associated with the Japan Sea Opening
Miocene sequences composed of volcanic rocks and overlying marine sediments distributing at the Japan Sea side of Southwest Japan have been considered to form related to the rifting and subsequent spreading of the Japan Sea back-arc basin in Miocene time. We performed paleomagnetic investigations on the sequences in the eastern San’in district, the Hokutan and Tottori Groups. Paleomagnetic analyses on samples from 33 sites indicated that characteristic magnetic components from five sites of volcanic rocks in the Hokutan Group and from four sites of marine sediments in the Tottori Group were regarded as primary components. An obtained paleomagnetic direction of the volcanic rocks has an easterly deflected declination (D = 23.9° ± 20.2°), while that of the marine sediments shows no significant deflection in declination (D = 17.8° ± 19.1°). Through the comparison with paleomagnetic data from the Miocene sequences in Southwest Japan, it is suggested that magnetic polarities of the volcanic and sedimentary sequences are assigned to C5Cn and C5Br-C5Bn, respectively, and that the eastern San’in district suffered a clockwise rotation of 24° at around 16 Ma after the early Miocene volcanic activity and before the middle Miocene marine transgression in the whole clockwise rotation process of Southwest Japan related to the Japan Sea opening.
Part of the book: Evolutionary Models of Convergent Margins