Sediment and Water Flux at Boulder Reef Before, During, and After Cyclone Dominic

Monitoring data captured before, during, and after the passage of Tropical Cyclone Dominic at Boulder Reef in the Northern Great Barrier Reef. The dataset from the Australian Ocean Data Network details sediment loads, water velocities, and the terrestrial input from the Endeavour River, including a record discharge of nearly 50,000 megalitres/day. It also provides long-term context, suggesting periodic terrigenous clay deposition events of 135-228 tonnes approximately every five years over the past 5000 years.

Use Cases

• Modeling sediment transport and deposition patterns based on monitored water velocities and sediment loads.
• Analyzing the impact of high-energy cyclone events on reef-derived and terrestrial sediment composition.
• Studying long-term terrigenous input cycles to coral reef systems based on the described 5-year periodicity.
• Investigating the relationship between river discharge events and clay mineral (illite, kaolinite) delivery to reefs.

Strengths

• Captures a high-energy event with specific measurements: water velocities up to 60 cm/s and sediment loads 2-5 times greater during the cyclone.
• Provides quantified context: Endeavour River discharge of nearly 50,000 megalitres/day and terrigenous clay deposition estimated at 135-228 tonnes per event.
• Includes temporal coverage before, during, and after the cyclone, plus long-term historical context spanning approximately 5000 years.

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network via data_gov_au

Collection Method

Field monitoring of sediment and water flux.

Time Range

Period surrounding Tropical Cyclone Dominic, with long-term historical context.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 18:20:27.422012; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Boulder Reef, Northern Great Barrier Reef, and Endeavour River catchment, Australia.