The Monzen Formation is defined to occur between the Akashima Formation and the Nomuragawa and Daijima Formations and the type locality is specified along the coast from Monzen to Akashima, western Oga Peninsula. The lower contact with the Akashima Formation is faulted and the upper contact with the Nomuragawa and Daijima Formations is unconformable. The Monzen Formation is newly divided into the following members in ascending stratigraphic order: Butaijima Basalt, Ryugashima Dacite, Chorakuji Sandstone and Conglomerate, Chorakuji Basalt, Nagasaki Dacite, Kenashiyama Andesite, and Shinzan Rhyolite. The Chorakuji Basalt is locally interbedded with Chorakuji Sandstone and Conglomerate. The volcanic rocks dominated in the Monzen Formation erupted in a short period of time most likely from 36 Ma to 34 Ma to constitute volcanic edifices in a terrestrial to shallowwater area slowly rifting under extensional stresses. The geologic processes of the Monzen Formation are likely to represent precursors of the Early Miocene rapid opening of the Japan Sea. However, there is a large time gap over 10 7 years between the Monzen Formation and the overlying Daijima Formation, and it is necessary to extend the survey area to find the missing link between the two units.

The Shinzan Rhyolites are the uppermost part of the Monzen Formation and discordantly cover the Kamo Lavas of the same formation. The volcanic succession from the Kamo Lavas and correlative Kuguriiwa Lavas to the Shinzan Rhyolites has been accepted to range in isotopic age from 34 Ma to 24 Ma with a large time gap of 2 or 3 million years between the Shinzan Rhyolites and the underlying two units. This paper reports new isotopic ages of the Shinzan Rhyolites, ca. 34 Ma by Ar-Ar and K-Ar dating of biotite and ca. 37 Ma by fi ssion-track dating of zircon. A new fi ssion-track date of the welded felsic tuff from the Kamo Lavas is ca. 36 Ma. These new age data are mutually consistent and much more reliable than the ever-reported isotopic age, and obviously indicate that 1 the Monzen Formation is to be Late Eocene to Early Oligocene in age and 2 the time gap between the Shinzan Rhyolites and the Kamo Lavas should be much smaller than or negligible relative to the time span of the entire volcanic succession. The main part of the Shinzan Rhyolites would be slightly younger than the shallow marine Shiose-nomisaki Sandstone and Conglomerate 34-36 Ma and perhaps demonstrates the Late Eocene to Early Oligocene rifting precedent to the rapid opening of the Japan Sea.

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Abstact: Kabuki Iwa (Rock) at the northwestern shore of Oga Peninsula is composed of Late Eocene basaltic andesite aa lava flows and pillowed lava flows, dacitic pyroclastic flows, debris flows and other epiclastic rocks. This close association of the subaerial and subaqueous volcanic products demonstrates a transitional environment between land and shallow water. NE-SW-trending parallel dikes and normal faults are also associated with these rocks in the surrounding areas, and the volcanic succession at Kabuki Iwa is interpreted to have accumulated in an extensional basin which slowly subsided with volcanism before the rapid opening of the Japan Sea.

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