Abstract
Yamamoto et al. (2011) showed the occurrences of serpentinite in the Yaseo area on the Satsuma Peninsula, Kagoshima Prefecture, and interpreted them as klippes that were structurally emplaced onto the Cretaceous sediments of the Shimanto Belt. However, our investigation shows that the serpentinite was intruded sub-vertically into the Cretaceous sediments as sheets trending north–south, as proposed previously. This interpretation is supported by the observation that the serpentinite body at the top of a ridge, which Yamamoto et al. (2011) interpreted as a klippe, has sub-vertical boundaries with the Cretaceous sediments. In addition, the so-called debris and isolated blocks of serpentinite on the valley floor and mountainside, as shown by Yamamoto et al. (2011), are actually in situ outcrops of serpentinite. These in situ outcrops are the sites of waterfalls that fall to the valley floor and the sites of cliffs in the mountainside. The serpentinite bodies in the Yaseo area are correlated with those of Tokunoshima Island and western Shikoku, and were intruded from the latest Cretaceous to the earliest Paleocene.
