Late Quaternary Transgressive Stratigraphy and its Depositional History in the Southeastern Continental Shelf, Korea

Analysis of high-resolution seismic profiles acquired from the southeastern continental shelf of Korea reveals that the late Quaternary transgressive deposits consist of six seismic units created in response to sea-level rise. These units with different seismic facies and geometry can be grouped into two distinct depositional wedges (paralic and marine) bounded by a ravinement surface. The paralic component underlying the ravinement surface consists of the sediment preserved from shoreface erosion and contains incised-channel fill, ancient beach-shoreface deposit and estuarine deposit. The top of paralic unit is truncated by a ravinement surface and overlain by marine component. The marine component consists of the sediment produced through shoreface erosion during landward transgression and contains mid-shelf sand sheet, mid-shelf sand ridge and inner shelf sand sheet. Such transgressive stratigraphic architecture of six sedimentary units is controlled by a function of lateral changes in the balance among rates of relative sea-level rise, sediment input and marine processes at any given time.