National Gravity Compilation 2019: First Vertical Derivative Image of Australia

Geoscience Australia's National Gravity Compilation 2019 CSCBA 1VD image is a processed geophysical grid derived from nearly 1.4 million ground stations and offshore data. The grid has a cell size of approximately 435 meters and represents the first vertical derivative of complete spherical cap Bouguer anomalies. Data was compiled from sources dating from the 1940s to 2019, with station spacing ranging from 11 km to less than 1 km across the continent.

Use Cases

• Modeling subsurface geological structures based on gravity anomaly variations.
• Mapping density contrasts in the Earth's crust for mineral exploration targeting.
• Integrating gravity data with other geophysical datasets for regional tectonic studies.
• Calculating terrain corrections for gravity surveys using the described bathymetry and topography data.

Strengths

• Derived from nearly 1.4 million gravity stations, providing dense continental coverage.
• Incorporates data from the 1940s to 2019, offering a long historical baseline.
• Processed with terrain corrections using both offshore bathymetry and onshore topography.
• Cell size of approximately 435 meters provides a relatively high-resolution grid.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Station spacing is variable, from 11 km to less than 1 km, which may affect local resolution consistency.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data, supplemented with offshore data from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, NOAA, and NGA.

Collection Method

Ground and marine gravity observations processed via standard methods and FFT to create a first vertical derivative grid.

Time Range

1940s to September 2019

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-30 14:35:40.915244; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australia and its continental margins