Marine Data Register: Metadata for Australian Seabed Mapping

Geoscience Australia's Marine Data Register (MDR) is a lifecycle management system for metadata on seabed mapping data, including bathymetry and geophysical data. It supports centralized data-discovery by documenting the acquisition, processing, publication, and decommissioning of datasets, regardless of their physical storage location. The system powers the public AusSeabed Marine Data Portal and facilitates the discovery of both publicly available and non-publicly available datasets held by Geoscience Australia.

Use Cases

• Discovering seabed bathymetry data for a specific Australian region via the AusSeabed portal.
• Tracking the processing and publication status of geophysical survey metadata through its lifecycle.
• Submitting metadata for external seabed mapping projects to support centralized discovery.
• Querying for specific data types like backscatter or sub-bottom profiler information using the Query Builder.

Strengths

• Serves as the authoritative metadata backbone for the national AusSeabed Marine Data Portal.
• Manages a full data lifecycle, from acquisition to decommissioning, for detailed provenance.
• Supports discovery of datasets regardless of their physical storage location.

Limitations

• Column names and specific data volumes (row counts, file sizes) are not provided in the source metadata.
• The dataset's description is repeated verbatim across multiple platform entries, suggesting limited detailed documentation.
• The listed 'last updated' dates are in the future (2026), indicating a potential metadata error or system artifact.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, National Seabed Mapping Section

Collection Method

Metadata submitted via an interface for centralized registration and lifecycle management.

Time Range

null

Freshness

Last updated dates are listed as 2026-04-30 and 2026-04-20, which are implausible future dates.

Geography

Australia