Geoscience Australia Marine Survey 282 Post-Survey Report: Shallow Gas and Benthic Habitat

A marine survey identified shallow gas fields at a density of approximately 350 pockmarks per square kilometer in the Arafura Sea. The report, published by Geoscience Australia and hosted by the Australian Ocean Data Network, correlates gas presence with sediment types and links deep geological faults to seafloor features. It also details benthic habitats, noting areas of high biodiversity correlate with harder substrates where sessile benthos can extend up to ~50cm in height.

Use Cases

• Mapping pockmark field distribution and density based on the reported ~350/km2 concentration.
• Correlating benthic biodiversity and abundance with substrate hardness as described in the survey.
• Investigating links between microbial gas production in mud-filled channels and pockmark development.
• Analyzing connections between deep Proterozoic faults and modern seafloor features using the correlated seismic data.
• Assessing habitat uniformity and low-relief benthos coverage in soft substrate areas covering less than 5% surface area.

Strengths

• Gas presence confirmed by direct analysis of core material obtained during the survey.
• Detailed seabed mapping correlates habitat type with biodiversity of various benthic fauna.
• Correlation of sub-bottom profile data with conventional seismic data provides multi-scale geological context.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data freshness should be verified despite the listed last update of 2026-06-16.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia / Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Marine survey involving geophysical data collection and core sample analysis.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-16 21:53:21.322570

Geography

Arafura Sea