Late Holocene Sediment Cores from Nara Inlet, Central Great Barrier Reef

Three sediment cores from Nara Inlet in the Whitsunday Islands, Australia, collected by the Australian Ocean Data Network. The dataset describes sediment composition and accumulation rates over the last 3000 years in a tropical mixed clastic/carbonate system. It includes measurements of terrigenous clay and carbonate components, with radiocarbon dating indicating changes in accumulation rates.

Use Cases

• Modeling sediment accumulation rates over the last 3000 years based on radiocarbon ages.
• Analyzing the relationship between clastic and carbonate sediment abundance over time.
• Investigating the impact of fringing reef growth on terrigenous sediment input.
• Studying the provenance and redistribution of terrigenous material on the middle shelf.

Strengths

• Includes radiocarbon ages indicating the top 3 meters accumulated within the last 3000 years.
• Quantifies carbonate component as 25.80% by weight with specific mineralogical detail (Sr-poor foraminifera tests and mollusc shells).
• Provides a temporal analysis of changing clastic versus carbonate accumulation rates.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to a single inlet study site.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Three sediment cores collected from Nara Inlet, with analysis of surface and subsurface sediment components.

Time Range

Late Holocene, covering approximately the last 3000 years.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 19:53:33.682177; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Nara Inlet, Whitsunday Islands, central Great Barrier Reef platform, Australia.