The low seismic activity of the Korean Peninsula surrounded by high earthquake countries

Although the Korean Peninsula is locatednear several great earthquake regions suchas NE China and SW Japan, it has neversuffered from catastrophic earthquakes forthe last 2000 years according to historicaland instrumental records. We investigatedthe low seismicity of Korea based on thehypothesis of the Baikal-Korea Plate (BKP)or Amurian Plate movement which isinitiated by the Baikal Rift Zone spreadingin a southeastward motion with acounter-clockwise rotation due to thecollision of the Indian Plate against theEurasian Plate. Many disastrous earthquakesof NE China, SW Japan and Sakhalin releaselarge amounts of seismic energy along theboundary of the Baikal-Korea Plate. It isnecessary to compute the released seismicenergy along the presumed boundary of theBaikal-Korea Plate compared to the KoreanPeninsula in order to estimate themicro-plate boundary. The total energyreleases (1900–1999) from the majordisastrous earthquakes (M6.0) alongthe Baikal-Korea plate are about10³–10⁴ times as much as theKorean Peninsula (M3.0). The focalmechanisms for the intra-continentalearthquakes near and/or along theBaikal-Korea Plate boundary of NE China, SW Japan, Sakhalin and Mongolia mostlyrepresent the horizontal motions of theright-lateral strike slip type, indicatingthat the Baikal-Korea Plate is acounter-clockwise and transcurrent motion. The relative displacement vectors of GPS(global positioning system) also indicatedthat the Baikal-Korea Plate movescounter-clockwise around the KoreanPeninsula. These factors may indicate thatthe Korean Peninsula is not located at thePlate boundary, but just within a margin ofthe Baikal-Korea Plate which movessoutheastward with a counter-clockwiserotation from the Baikal Rift Zone in NEAsia. Therefore there is no enoughaccumulated strain to generate largeearthquakes in the Korean Peninsula and itmakes the Korean Peninsula free fromseismic hazard of large catastrophicearthquakes.