National Gravity Compilation 2019: First Vertical Derivative Image of Australia

Approximately 1.8 million gravity observations, including nearly 1.4 million ground stations, were used to generate this grid. The image shows the first vertical derivative of the complete Bouguer anomalies over Australia and its continental margins, derived from the 2019 Australian National Gravity Grids. Data were compiled by Geoscience Australia from Commonwealth, State, Territory, industry, and academic sources, with observations dating from the 1940s to 2019.

Use Cases

• Model subsurface geological structures based on gravity anomaly data.
• Interpret crustal thickness and density variations based on the first vertical derivative grid.
• Support mineral and resource exploration based on revealed geological features.
• Integrate with other geophysical datasets for regional geological studies based on the standardized national grid.

Strengths

• Derived from approximately 1.8 million gravity observations, providing continental-scale coverage.
• Incorporates data from multiple sources (government, industry, academia) collected from the 1940s to 2019.
• Grid has a cell size of 0.00417 degrees (approximately 435m), offering a standardized resolution.
• Processed with terrain corrections using bathymetry and topography data, and quality-checked by GA geophysicists.

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

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

Time Range

1940s to 2019 (observation dates), with compilation as of September 2019.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03 25 17:13:53.586328; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australia and its continental margins.