Field

Report

Utpal Kumar
Instructors: Yu-Chang Chan
Jian-Cheng Lee

Introduction:
People have always been interested in understanding the processes that shaped
the planet they dwell upon.

Fieldwork is the primary source in which we get the geologic data. It becomes
necessary because we cannot perfectly simulate the real scenario in laboratory,
which is expensive as well. Geologist has the direct approach to find the solution
to some of the complex problems posed by the nature for getting an
understanding how the nature works. As Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his famous
book-series, An Adventure of Sherlock Holmes wrote, Most people, if you
describe a train of events to them, will tell you what the result would be. There
are few people, however, who if you tell them a result would be able to evolve
from their inner consciousness what the steps were which led to that result.

Geologic field trip can
1. Determine the spatial distribution, age and the attitude (horizontal, tilted
or overturned) of the rocks within the area.
2. Document those structures that have deformed or cut those units.
3. Determine the processes that led to the emplacement of these rocks and
have subsequently modified them.
Field geology becomes simpler if we have uncovered outcrops and for our case
since we were pursuing not intense field geology so we selected the places where
the outcrops were nicely exposed.

Figure 1: Difficulty faced by Geologists

Geology of Taiwan:
Taiwan is a modern mobile belt and an orogeny formed by the collision of island
arc with the Asian continental margin. It is located at the boundary between the
Philippine Sea Plate to the East and the Eurasian Plate to the West, with a
convergence rate of ~ 80 mm/yr in a ~N118E direction.

Figure 2: Tectonic Setting of Taiwan

The Taiwan orogenic belt presently comprises four geological provinces, the
Coastal Range (CoR), Backbone Range (BR), Hsuehshan Range (HR) and Western
Foothills (WF) (from east to west). The Coastal Range incorporates the accreted
volcanic arc. The Backbone Range and Hsuehshan Range are collectively referred
to as the Central Range, which comprises the main body of the Taiwan orogen.
The Central Range consists of pre-Tertiary continental basement unconformably
overlain by metamorphosed Eocene to Miocene clastics deposited during the
Palaeogene rifting and Oligocene-Miocene post-breakup phases. The WF
province is a west-vergent, fold-and thrust belt comprising an Oligocene-
Pleistocene siliciclastic sequence that accumulated on a passive margin and,
subsequently, in a foreland basin setting.

6
Teng (1990)
From Chan et al. (2001)

Figure 3: Overall geology of Taiwan

The main island of Taiwan comprises in part a metamorphic basement covered
by Cenozoic deposits to a thickness of more than 10,000 meters. Taiwan is
located on a convergent plate boundary between the Asiatic continental plate
and the Philippine Sea oceanic plate. The major rock formations of Taiwan form
long narrow belts roughly parallel to the long axis of the island. These rock belts
young progressively westward from the central backbone range to the west
coast. The metamorphic basement of Taiwan is the oldest geologic-tectonic
element, and was formed in Late Paleozoic to Mesozoic times. This old geologic-
tectonic element experienced several phases of orogenic deformation,
magmatism and metamorphism, culminating in a Late Mesozoic orogeny. These
pre-Cenozoic rocks were then folded into mountain ranges and intensely
metamorphosed to form the main metamorphic complex of Taiwan.

Data and Observations:
We were fortunate enough that the weather, traffic etc were perfect for the field
trip. It was a cloudy day with little wind. So, we escaped the intense sunbeams
and the rain which lead us to do uninterrupted field work since morning to
evening.
We started from Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica at 9:40AM. We
moved eastwards through the Shi-shan tunnel to our first site.
We visited 4 sites to get a brief understanding of the geology of Taiwan. The sites
are categorized in the table below.




Table 1: Observations at the four sites
Site Name Site 1(Tatong) Site 2(Gango) Site 3 Site 4
Observations (Sandingal) (Longdong)
Metamorphosed Less Less Less
zone: slate metamorphosed metamorphosed Metamorphosed
Shale layer, Fractures Basaltic dikes Oldest rocks in
quartz veins (cleavage bot foothills
well developed)
Joints Joints (bedding
perpendicular)
Bulky Quartz Oxidized
nodules
Folding
Age Miocene Oligocene Miocene Oligocene

(a)

(b)
Figure 4: (a)Figure showing the four sites and their geological locations,
(b)cross-section structure (below)









Table 2
Sites Formation Age order (Y-I, O-
IV)
1 Lushan Formation I
2 Kango Formation III
3 Tatungshan II
Formation
4 Szeleng IV
Formation

Figure 5: Metamorphosed rock observed at site 1


Figure 6 (a)

Figure 6 (b)
Figure 6: Outcrop showing folded shaley layer at site 1

Figure 7: Recrystallized Quartz Veins at site 1

Figure 8: Joints filled by Quartz veins, site 1

Figure 9: Joints: Shear extension rotation (right lateral mechanism), site 2

Figure 10: Dike outcrops at site 3

Figure 11: Slikenslides observed at site 3

Figure 11: Potholes observed at site 3, showing the effect of weathering agents
(probably wind)

Figure 12: Figure showing the displacement of dike (lai-lai dike) probably due to
perpendicular right lateral shearing, site 3

Discussion and Conclusion:
As we keep on moving towards west, the grade of metamorphism decreases. This
is because we were moving away from the center of active tectonics, the Ryukyu
trench. At site 1, we observe more metamorphosed rocks because this is near to
the trench, the zone of subduction. Also, the attitude of folding shows that the
stress direction is the phillipines plate motion towards the eurassian plate, i.e it
is highest compressive stress direction is in north-westward direction. This
stress direction effect is evident at almost all sites. The site 2, shows the joints
with right lateral shear extension roation. This is the result of the rotation of
Taiwan due to tectonic forces. At site 3, we observed the exposed dikes, which is
due to magmatism. The magmatism at this location is probably due to the
Ryukyu trench. The dikes were also oriented in more or less E-W direction as is
the attitude of the Ryukyu trench.


Figure 13: Nodules formed due to biogenic activities, site 3

Figure 14: Exposed Szeleng Formation rocks at site 4

Acknowledgement: I would like to thank Prof Yu-Chang and Prof. Jian-Cheng Lee
for their kind support and help.