Great Barrier Reef Surficial Cover Facies Maps with Bathymetric Classification

1982 reconnaissance maps of the Great Barrier Reef's surface cover facies, compiled by the Bureau of Mineral Resources. The maps differentiate supratidal, intertidal, and subtidal zones based on a simple bathymetric classification. Cartography was completed by G.A. Young and R.A. Swoboda, with editing in 1983.

Use Cases

• Classifying reef surface cover types based on the documented surficial facies.
• Analyzing bathymetric zonation patterns based on the supratidal, intertidal, and subtidal classifications.
• Providing a historical baseline for reef morphology studies based on the 1982 mapping.

Strengths

• Maps include a bathymetric classification differentiating three tidal zones.
• Maximum resolution was retained where possible to aid user location on the reefs.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Map resolution is variable and decreases with increasing water depth.

Provenance

Source

Bureau of Mineral Resources (BMR), Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Reconnaissance-style mapping technique developed by BMR.

Time Range

1982

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-28 12:51:49.718099; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Great Barrier Reef, Australia