National Gravity Compilation 2019: Australian Subsurface Density Grid

Nearly 1.8 million gravity observations, including 1.4 million ground stations and over 450,000 line kilometers of airborne surveys, underpin this national grid. The dataset reveals subsurface geological structure by measuring minute gravity variations in units of micrometers per second squared. It integrates decades of data from government, industry, and research sources, processed and quality-checked by Geoscience Australia geophysicists.

Use Cases

• Mineral and resource exploration targeting based on subsurface density anomalies.
• Geological mapping and structural interpretation of the Australian continent.
• Integrating ground and airborne gravity data to improve resolution in poorly surveyed areas.
• Calibrating regional geophysical models using a standardized national gravity grid.

Strengths

• Integrates a large volume of observations: approximately 1.8 million gravity points, including 1.4 million ground stations.
• Combines multiple data sources: ground, airborne gravity (345,000 line km), and airborne gravity gradiometry (106,000 line km) for comprehensive coverage.
• Data is quality-checked by Geoscience Australia geophysicists to ensure it is fit-for-purpose.
• Provides a high-resolution grid with a cell size of approximately 435 meters.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as specific column names, row counts, and license information is not provided in the available sources.
• The 'last updated' metadata field shows a future date (2026), indicating a potential data entry error or system artifact.
• The dataset's description is highly repetitive across the listed platform entries, suggesting sparse or duplicated metadata.

Provenance

Source

Australian National Gravity Database (ANGD), Scripps Institution of Oceanography (Global Gravity grid v28.1), and various government, industry, and research surveys.

Collection Method

Ground and airborne gravity measurements processed via standard methods and gridded.

Time Range

1940s to present day (with a compilation snapshot as of September 2019).

Freshness

2026-06-27 20:21:36.949919 (Note: This is a future date, which may be an error.)

Geography

Australia and surrounding offshore regions.