Elevations and ages of marine terraces and late Quaternary rock uplift in southeastern Korea

From a detailed GPS survey of marine terraces and their former shoreline elevations along the southeastern coast of the Korean Peninsula, we determined the pattern of late Quaternary uplift in a part of the far eastern intraplate region of the Eurasian Plate. Using a paleosea level of +6 m for the 117–132 ka sea level highstand, the average long‐term uplift rates are 0.3 m/ka in the Weolsung and 0.2 m/ka in the Daebo–Gori regions. Persistent uplift that generated marine terraces is mostly the result of local major faulting reflecting an ENE–WNW maximum compression stress. The differences in uplift rates suggest a local, triangular crustal block undergoing structural movement controlled by subregional tectonic processes. Notable local major faulting in an intraplate region plays an important role in raising the emergent flight of marine terraces generated by earthquakes.