Australian Seabed Sediments Collection from 1905 to 2017

Over a century of marine sediment data, from 1905 to 2017, describing physical properties of seabed samples. The dataset is held by Geoscience Australia's Marine Sediment database (MARS) and aggregates samples from multiple organizations across Australian waters and territories. Attributes likely include survey details, sample IDs, location, water depth, and sediment properties like grain size percentages and texture classification.

Use Cases

• Map seabed sediment texture distribution based on the Folk (1954) classification system.
• Analyze sediment grain size composition based on percentages of mud, sand, and gravel.
• Correlate sediment properties with water depth and geographic location across Australian waters.
• Study long-term changes in marine sediment characteristics based on samples collected over a 112-year period.

Strengths

• Samples span a 112-year period from 1905 to 2017, providing a long-term perspective.
• Covers a broad geographic area including the Australian EEZ, Antarctic Territory, Christmas Island, and surrounding waters.
• Includes multiple sediment properties such as %mud, %sand, %gravel, mean grain size, and texture classification.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• There is no consistent datum and projection due to the long time span and differing collecting organizations.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Marine Sediment database (MARS), aggregated from multiple organizations.

Collection Method

Samples collected by marine surveys using various techniques.

Time Range

1905 to 2017

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-23 02:57:14.992355; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australian Exclusive Economic Zone, Australian Antarctic Territory, Christmas Island (Indian Ocean), Timor Sea, and waters around Papua New Guinea.