Lord Howe Island Seabed Backscatter Grid from 2008 Marine Survey

A 2008 marine survey by Geoscience Australia mapped seabed characteristics on the Lord Howe Island shelf. The resulting backscatter grid covers 1034 square kilometers, produced from processed EM300 sonar data. Data acquisition involved seabed sampling, video observation, and oceanographic measurements from the RV Southern Surveyor.

Use Cases

• Modeling seabed sediment types based on backscatter intensity values.
• Characterizing benthic habitats by correlating backscatter data with video observations.
• Mapping sediment thickness and shelf stratigraphy by integrating with sub-bottom profile data.
• Studying oceanographic processes using data from the recovered 6-month mooring deployment.

Strengths

• Covers a defined area of 1034 square kilometers.
• Integrates data from multiple sources including a 2007 oceanographic mooring.
• Based on a survey with colocated sampling of sediments, infauna, and video observations.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic/temporal bias inherent to data_gov_au.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Processed from EM300 backscatter data collected during the SS062008 marine survey.

Time Range

2008 (primary survey), with mooring data from a 6-month deployment starting in 2007.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-16 09:29:40.623845; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Lord Howe Island shelf, New South Wales, Australia.