Playa lake and sheetflood deposits of the Upper Cretaceous Jindong Formation, Korea: Occurrences and palaeoenvironments

The Jindong Lake formed by the combination of humid source area and arid depositional site due to an orographic effect in fault-bounded basin. Extensive development of the playa lake and sheetflood deposits with evaporite mineral casts and very limited association of shoreline deposits in the Jindong Formation are characteristic of closed lake, and the Jindong Lake is compared to a lake formed in partly drained closed basin. The aggradation of mudflat deposits indicates continued subsidence of the basin and continuation of an underfilled lake basin. The Jindong Lake expanded and stabilized as a playa lake surrounded by dry to saline mudflats, and palaeoclimate and subsidence rates changed little throughout the period of the Jindong Lake development.