MARS Database: Australian Seafloor Sediment Samples and Maps

Australia's marine jurisdiction contains a database of about 25,000 seafloor sediment samples with 138,000 recorded properties. The National Oceans Office and Geoscience Australia collaborated on this project to identify, collate, and map sediment data, producing maps of grain size and carbonate content for regions including the Northern Planning Area. This work represents the first national-scale critical assessment of Australia's seafloor sediment data quality and coverage.

Use Cases

• Map seafloor sediment classification based on the Folk scheme and carbonate content mentioned in the description.
• Model sediment mobility in shallow waters using mean grain size data for marine domains.
• Identify gaps in measured sediment data coverage to guide future sampling efforts, as the description notes 70% of the marine domain remains unmapped.
• Analyze the distribution of gravel, sand, and mud weight percentages across the Australian Marine Jurisdiction.

Strengths

• Contains about 25,000 seafloor sediment samples with 138,000 recorded properties.
• Includes validated quantitative data used to produce maps of sediment properties for specific regions.
• Represents the first project to critically assess the quality and coverage of Australia's seafloor sediment data on a national scale.

Limitations

• Significant gaps in measured data coverage were identified, with about 70% of the total marine domain remaining unmapped.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data, National Oceans Office

Collection Method

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

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-20 02:37:16.111595; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australian Marine Jurisdiction, including the Northern Planning Area, excluding external territories.