Palaeoshorelines on the Australian continental shelf: morphology, sea-level relationship a

Palaeoshorelines on the stable Australian continental shelf formed during periods of lower sea level, primarily at depths of 30–40 m and 70–90 m over the last 128,000 years. The dataset, from Geoscience Australia and published in Continental Shelf Research in 2017, maps these relict coastal features to provide a geospatial framework for biodiversity studies and resource targeting. It relates shoreline morphology and preservation to composition and oceanographic setting.

Use Cases

• Modeling marine species distributions based on mapped palaeoshoreline habitats.
• Targeting submerged sand resources based on relict coastal area locations.
• Identifying potential archaeological sites of human occupation from periods of lower sea level.
• Monitoring environmental change using the palaeoshoreline geospatial framework.
• Comparing shelf geomorphology globally based on depth zones of modal sea levels.

Strengths

• Based on a well-dated Late Quaternary sea-level record spanning 0–128 ka.
• Identifies specific modal sea-level depths (30–40 m and 70–90 m) linked to time periods.
• Provides a geospatial framework for biodiversity and monitoring applications.

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Analysis of sea-level record and mapping of continental shelf features.

Time Range

Late Quaternary (0–128,000 years ago)

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-25 16:26:10.951344; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australian continental shelf