Australian Continental Shelf Palaeoshorelines and Sea-Level History

Late Quaternary (0–128 ka) palaeoshorelines on the Australian continental shelf, mapped as relict coastal features formed during periods of lower sea level. These submerged structures, found at modal depths of 30–40 m and 70–90 m below present, record past oceanographic and geological regimes. The dataset provides a geospatial framework for studying benthic biodiversity, targeting sand resources, and investigating archaeological sites of human occupation.

Use Cases

• Modeling past sea-level positions and coastal response based on mapped shoreline depth and morphology.
• Investigating marine species distribution patterns linked to distinctive palaeoshoreline benthic habitats.
• Targeting potential submerged archaeological sites from periods of lower sea level for cultural heritage surveys.
• Identifying relict coastal areas as potential sources of sand for resource management.
• Comparing shelf morphology and preservation across carbonate versus siliciclastic compositions.

Strengths

• Derived from peer-reviewed research published in Continental Shelf Research (2017), providing a scientific foundation.
• Focuses on well-dated Late Quaternary sea-level record (0–128 ka) with specific modal depth ranges identified.
• Cross-platform presence on data.gov.au signals institutional endorsement and importance for Australian marine science.

Limitations

• Critical technical metadata is missing: no column names, row counts, file size, or specific license are provided.
• The 'last updated' date (2026-04-30) is a future date, indicating a metadata error that casts doubt on record maintenance.
• Dataset structure and access methods (beyond a likely HTML report) are unclear from the provided descriptions.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, based on research by Brooke et al. (2017).

Collection Method

Analysis and mapping of submerged depositional and erosional structures from bathymetric and geological data.

Time Range

Late Quaternary, 0–128 thousand years ago (ka).

Freshness

Last updated metadata shows 2026-04-30, but this is a future date and likely an error.

Geography

Australian continental shelf.