Timor Sea Seabed Topographic Relief from Multibeam Surveys, 2009-2010

Topographic relief data from seabed mapping surveys on the Van Diemen Rise in the eastern Joseph Bonaparte Gulf. The dataset resulted from a joint Geoscience Australia and Australian Institute of Marine Science survey conducted in 2009 and 2010, collecting geological and biological data across four study areas from the outer to inner shelf. It provides context for the benthic biodiversity of the Arafura-Timor Sea and wider northern Australian marine region.

Use Cases

• Modeling seabed hardness and substrate character based on topographic relief data.
• Investigating relationships between physical seabed environment and macro-benthic diversity.
• Providing regional context for biodiversity prediction in the Arafura-Timor Sea.
• Analyzing geological features across shelf gradients from outer to inner shelf study areas.

Strengths

• Data collected under a formal Memorandum of Understanding between two major Australian scientific institutions, Geoscience Australia and the Australian Institute of Marine Science.
• Surveys conducted in two consecutive years (2009 and 2010), providing temporal context.
• Covers four distinct study areas across the outer to inner shelf of the Van Diemen Rise.
• Linked to a published Geoscience Australia record (2013/11) detailing processing methodologies.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and data scale are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic and temporal bias inherent to the specific 2009-2010 survey campaigns.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network, aggregating data from Geoscience Australia and the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

Collection Method

Collected via multibeam seabed mapping surveys (GA-0322/SOL4934 in 2009 and GA-0325/SOL5117 in 2010).

Time Range

2009 to 2010

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-16 09:35:42.548234; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Van Diemen Rise, eastern Joseph Bonaparte Gulf, Timor Sea, Northern Australia.