National Gravity Compilation 2019: DGIR 0.5VD Image of Australia

Approximately 1.8 million gravity observations, including nearly 1.4 million ground stations and 451,000 line km of airborne surveys, were used to create this 2019 gravity grid. The Australian Ocean Data Network compiled data from government, industry, and academic sources dating from the 1940s to the present day. The resulting image shows the half vertical derivative of de-trended global isostatic residual anomalies over Australia and its continental margins at a cell size of approximately 435 meters.

Use Cases

• Map subsurface geological structures based on gravity anomaly data.
• Identify potential mineral resource locations based on density contrasts in the Earth's crust.
• Integrate gravity data with other geophysical surveys for enhanced geological interpretation.
• Study the isostatic state and crustal thickness of the Australian continent based on the DGIR grid.

Strengths

• Integrates approximately 1.8 million observations from multiple sources, including ground, airborne, and offshore data.
• Data quality was checked by GA geophysicists to ensure fitness-for-purpose.
• Combines historical data from the 1940s with modern surveys for comprehensive continental coverage.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic or source bias inherent to data_gov_au.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network, compiling data from Commonwealth, State, Territory Governments, mining industry, universities, and research organisations.

Collection Method

Processed from ground observations in the Australian National Gravity Database (ANGD), offshore data from Scripps/NOAA/NGA, and airborne gravity surveys.

Time Range

1940s to 2019

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-23 03:07:19.161260; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australia and its continental margins