Geoscience Australia maintains a national collection of marine geological samples and analytical data. This standalone dataset collates sediment properties for over 15,000 seabed samples from the Marine Sediment Database (MARS), which holds approximately 2.6 million digital records. Analytical data includes textural composition, particle size statistics, and calcium carbonate values, with sample depth, location, and survey information.
Use Cases
- Seabed characterisation based on textural composition (mud, sand, gravel) and particle size distribution statistics.
- Sediment transport modelling based on particle size data and sample locations across the continental shelf, slope, and deep ocean.
- Habitat characterisation based on sediment properties and associated water depth information.
- Seabed engineering studies based on sediment texture and carbonate content data.
- Fundamental geological and sedimentological research based on the continental-scale sample set.
Strengths
- Contains data for over 15,000 seabed samples.
- Derived from the Marine Sediment Database (MARS), which holds approximately 2.6 million entries.
- Covers a continental-scale area across the Australian marine region, matching the AusBathyTopo 250m 2023 grid extent.
- Includes multiple sediment properties: textural composition, particle size statistics, textural class, and calcium carbonate values.
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred from the accompanying metadata document after download.
- Row count is unknown for this specific extract, which may limit suitability assessment.
- Data may reflect geographic and temporal bias inherent to the source surveys compiled in the MARS database.
Provenance
- Source
- Geoscience Australia's Marine Sediment Database (MARS), via the Australian Ocean Data Network.
- Collection Method
- Extracted and collated from the larger MARS database to create a standalone dataset.
- Time Range
- null
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-06-23 05:56:12.341834; freshness should be verified.
- Geography
- Australian marine region, covering coast, continental shelf, slope, and deep ocean locations.