National Gravity Compilation 2019: Half Vertical Derivative Grid for Australia

Nearly 1.4 million gravity stations from the Australian National Gravity Database, supplemented by offshore data, were used to generate this grid. The data, acquired from the 1940s to 2019, were processed by Geoscience Australia to produce a half vertical derivative of de-trended global isostatic residual anomalies. The resulting grid has a cell size of 0.00417 degrees, approximately 435 meters, covering Australia and its continental margins.

Use Cases

• Map subsurface geological structures based on gravity anomaly data.
• Model crustal thickness and density variations for tectonic research.
• Support mineral and resource exploration by identifying density contrasts in the Earth's crust.
• Integrate with other geophysical datasets for comprehensive geological interpretation.

Strengths

• Derived from nearly 1.4 million gravity observations, providing dense spatial coverage.
• Data collection spans from the 1940s to 2019, offering a long historical record.
• Processed and quality-checked by Geoscience Australia geophysicists to be fit-for-purpose.
• Station spacing in major parts of the continent is between 2.5 and 7 km, suggesting detailed regional coverage.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data may reflect geographic and temporal bias inherent to the aggregation of data from multiple government and industry sources over decades.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Ground and marine gravity observations processed via standard methods and a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT).

Time Range

1940s to 2019 (with database snapshot as of September 2019).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-25 17:27:39.231270; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australia and its continental margins.