The Koshiki Islands are located at southwest Kyushu, and are underlain by the sedimentary rocks belonging to the Himenoura Group (Upper Cretaceous) and Paleogene Tertiary, and granitic rocks intruded into them in Miocene age.
The Himenoura Group, forming a northeast-plunging synclinorium, is more than 3, 600meters thick, and is stratigraphically divided into six units, provisionally named A to F by K. Tanaka and Y. Teraoka (1973). Division B is more than 1, 200meters thick and graphite deposits are found in the phyllitic slates at the lowest part of it, subdivision B
1 in the Shimokoshiki-Jima.
The graphite deposits, the new occurrences in the Upper Cretaceous sediments of Japan, occur in the area about 2km west of Katanoura. There are a few ore bodies in this area, croping intermittently out about 300meters length. Three main ore bodies among them are named the Suzugaura 1 and 2, and Suzugasaki, and these ore bodies are lenticular shape with several meters length and 1 meter thick.
The graphite ore consists mainly of fine-grained crystalline graphite and quartz, and subsequently of sericite, chlorite, and plagioclase. The average values for carbon in the ores of these ore bodies range from 30 to 56 percent C.
The process of the formation of the graphite deposits in this area is considered as follow:
1) Upper Cretaceous: Sedimentation of the Himenoura Group {Sandstone and slate dominant with carbonaceous deltaic sediments in basal part (B
1).
2) Late Cretaceous to Paleogene Tertiary: Himenoura Movement {Slight concentration of carbonaceous materials and them slight graphitization.
3) Miocene: Participation in aplites related with granodiorite intrusion {Migration, concentration and crystallization on of carbonaceous materials. Formation of graphite deposits.
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