Holocene Sea-Level and Storm Records from the Great Barrier Reef Inner Zone

45 radiocarbon results from 11 sites show sea level fell smoothly from +1 meter 6000 years ago to its present position. The dataset examines fringing reefs and storm ridges between 14° and 20° S to reconstruct Holocene environmental changes. It was contributed by the Australian Ocean Data Network and last updated in 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling Holocene sea-level curves based on dated coral microatolls.
• Analyzing storm recurrence intervals using dated storm-ridge sequences.
• Investigating regional isostatic adjustments by comparing sea-level indicators across sites.
• Assessing long-term climatic stability in reef environments based on the absence of identified frequency changes in storm ridges over 4000-6000 years.

Strengths

• Includes 45 radiocarbon dates providing a chronological framework.
• Sea-level trend has defined confidence limits of ±0.2 meters.
• Storm recurrence analysis is based on 8 surveyed traverses across 5 locations.

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Examination of coral microatolls and surveyed storm-ridge sequences, with radiocarbon dating.

Time Range

Radiocarbon results range between 360 and 5855 years B.P., with analysis covering the last 6000 years.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-05 07:32:25.515795; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Great Barrier Reef inner shelf, between 14° and 20° S.