Marine Survey 282: Shallow Gas and Benthic Habitat Mapping in the Arafura Sea

A marine survey report from Geoscience Australia analyzing shallow gas and benthic habitats in the Arafura Sea. The report confirms microbial gas origins, maps pockmark fields at densities of approximately 350 per square kilometer, and correlates biodiversity with substrate types. The dataset is provided by the Australian Ocean Data Network and was last updated in April 2026.

Use Cases

• Mapping pockmark field density and distribution based on geophysical indicators and sediment type.
• Modeling shallow gas migration pathways based on correlations between deep faults and sea bed features.
• Analyzing benthic habitat suitability based on correlations between substrate hardness and biodiversity.
• Investigating microbial gas production in Holocene mud-filled channels based on core sample analysis.

Strengths

• Report includes specific density measurements for pockmark fields (~350/km2).
• Analysis is grounded in confirmed gas samples from core material and multiple geophysical data sources.
• Correlates multiple data layers, including sub-bottom profiles, seismic data, and sea bed mapping.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Primary data formats are PDF and HTML, which may require extraction for computational analysis.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Marine survey involving geophysical data collection, core sampling, and sea bed mapping.

Time Range

Survey date unknown; report metadata updated April 2026.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 17:39:45.323630; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Arafura Sea