Australian Seabed Sediment Properties From Marine Surveys

Over a century of seabed sediment samples, collected between 1905 and 2017, provide physical property data across Australian waters. The dataset, managed by Geoscience Australia's Marine Sediment database, includes samples from the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone, Antarctic Territory, and surrounding seas. Sediment properties like grain size composition and texture are recorded alongside survey and location details.

Use Cases

• Map sediment texture classification across regions using the Folk nomenclature column.
• Analyze correlations between water depth and sediment composition (%mud, %sand, %gravel).
• Compare sediment mean grain size distributions between different survey IDs or sampling methods.
• Model seabed properties for specific geographic areas using latitude and longitude location data.

Strengths

• Data spans 112 years of marine surveys (1905-2017).
• Covers multiple geographic regions including the Australian EEZ and Antarctic Territory.
• Includes specific sediment properties like mean grain size and percent composition.

Limitations

• No consistent spatial datum or projection across the entire dataset due to its long time span.
• Sampling technique, spatial accuracy, and sample preservation vary between contributing surveys.
• Exact row count and sample size are unknown.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Marine Sediment database (MARS).

Collection Method

Samples acquired by marine surveys from a range of organisations.

Time Range

1905 to 2017

Freshness

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Geography

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