Keppel Bay Beach-Ridge Sediment Record from the Holocene to Present

Late Holocene to modern sediment accumulation data from beach ridges in Keppel Bay, central Queensland, Australia. The dataset, provided by Geoscience Australia, includes optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages indicating periods of rapid progradation approximately 1500, 1000, 450, and 230 years before present. It represents a significant sediment store, potentially trapping the equivalent of 79% of the estimated long-term average annual bedload of the Fitzroy River.

Use Cases

• Modeling sediment transport and accumulation based on flood recurrence intervals and catchment erosion.
• Analyzing the impact of late Holocene climate fluctuations on coastal progradation rates.
• Investigating changes in sediment provenance based on trace-element composition linked to land-use changes.
• Quantifying long-term sediment budgets for tropical macrotidal coastlines.

Strengths

• Includes OSL dating providing temporal context for sediment deposition events.
• Quantifies sediment mass, indicating the strandplain traps the equivalent of 79% of the Fitzroy River's estimated long-term average annual bedload.
• Links sediment composition changes to specific historical land-use changes in the catchment.

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 a last updated date of 2026-04-20.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Analysis of beach-ridge sediments using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating and geochemical composition.

Time Range

Middle Holocene to present, with specific OSL ages from approximately 1500, 1000, 450, and 230 years BP to <100 years BP.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-20 02:25:20.193075

Geography

Keppel Bay, central Queensland, Australia, with sediment sourced from the Fitzroy River catchment.