National Marine Sediments Database: Seafloor Characteristics for Australian Waters

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

Use Cases

• Modeling sediment mobility in waters less than 300 m depth based on mean grain size data.
• Mapping benthic bioregions based on sediment classification using the Folk scheme.
• Identifying gaps in seafloor data coverage for future sampling strategies based on the reported 70% unmapped area.
• Analyzing the distribution of gravel, sand, and mud weight percentages for geological studies.

Strengths

• Contains approximately 25,000 validated seafloor sediment samples.
• Includes 138,000 recorded sediment properties for analysis.
• Provides geospatial maps for two defined regions: the Northern Planning Area and the Australian Marine Jurisdiction.

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

Collaborative project between the National Oceans Office and Geoscience Australia, hosted by the Australian Ocean Data Network.

Collection Method

Identification, collation, and validation of existing marine sediment data, followed by database population and mapping.

Time Range

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Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-27 18:28:12.820476; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australian Marine Jurisdiction, excluding external territories, with specific focus on the Northern Planning Area.