National Gravity Compilation 2019: Half-Vertical Derivative Grid of Australia

Nearly 1.4 million ground gravity stations, 345,000 line km of airborne gravity, and 106,000 line km of airborne gravity gradiometry were used to create this 2019 gravity anomaly grid. The data, compiled by Geoscience Australia, integrates ground observations from the 1940s onward with offshore data from global sources. The resulting grid has a cell size of approximately 435 meters and shows a half vertical derivative of complete Bouguer anomalies over Australia and its margins.

Use Cases

• Map subsurface geological structures based on gravity anomaly patterns.
• Support mineral and resource exploration by identifying density contrasts in the crust.
• Integrate with other geophysical data for regional tectonic modeling.
• Calculate terrain corrections for gravity surveys using the described bathymetry and topography data.

Strengths

• Integrates a large volume of data, including nearly 1.4 million ground stations and extensive airborne surveys.
• Data quality is explicitly checked by GA geophysicists to be fit-for-purpose.
• Station spacing in major parts of the continent is between 2.5 and 7 km, suggesting detailed coverage.
• Combines decades of data (1940s to present) from multiple government, industry, and academic sources.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for specific analytical methods.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data, incorporating data from Commonwealth, State, and Territory Governments, industry, universities, and global institutions like Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Collection Method

Ground and airborne gravity measurements processed via standard methods and FFT to create a spherical cap Bouguer anomaly grid.

Time Range

1940s to September 2019

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-30 15:01:14.567592; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australia and its continental margins