National Marine Sediments Database: Seafloor Characteristics for Australian Waters

25,000 seafloor sediment samples with 138,000 recorded properties, collated by Geoscience Australia and the National Oceans Office. Maps show the distribution of grain size, carbonate content, and sediment classification for the Northern Planning Area and the broader Australian Marine Jurisdiction. The project identified that about 70% of the marine domain remains unmapped by measured sediment data.

Use Cases

• Modeling sediment mobility in shallow waters based on mean grain size data.
• Mapping benthic marine bioregions based on quantitative seafloor sediment properties.
• Identifying gaps in seafloor data coverage to guide future sampling efforts.
• Analyzing sediment composition (gravel, sand, mud, carbonate) for environmental impact studies.

Strengths

• Contains approximately 25,000 samples with 138,000 recorded properties.
• Includes validated quantitative data used to produce maps of sediment properties.
• Represents the first national-scale critical assessment of Australia's seafloor sediment data quality and coverage.

Limitations

• Significant data gaps exist, with about 70% of the total marine domain unmapped by measured sediment data.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data freshness should be verified; the record's last update is listed as 2026-04-30.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data, National Oceans Office

Collection Method

Identification and collation of existing marine sediment data from various sources, followed by database population and analysis.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-30 15:03:34.042631; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australian Marine Jurisdiction, including the Northern Planning Area.