RV Sonne 1979 Cruise: Deep-Sea Geology off Western Australia

Western Australia's Exmouth Plateau, Wallaby Plateau, and Cuvier Abyssal Plain were surveyed during a six-week geological cruise in 1979. The research vessel Sonne collected samples from 120 stations at depths from 100 to 5200 meters, targeting pre-Quaternary strata and Quaternary sequences. Findings include Early Jurassic shelf carbonates, Middle Jurassic coal measures, Cretaceous sediments, and volcanic sequences, based on 31 seismic profiles.

Use Cases

• [Stratigraphic analysis] based on sampled pre-Quaternary rocks from specific geological periods
• [Basin modeling] based on seismic profiles and rock samples from plateau margins
• [Resource assessment] based on the discovery of coal measures and search for manganese nodules
• [Paleoenvironmental reconstruction] based on sequences of shelf and pelagic carbonates
• [Geological mapping] based on station locations and sample depths across the survey area

Strengths

• Dataset is based on a systematic survey with 120 successfully occupied sampling stations
• Samples cover a wide depth range from 100 to 5200 meters, providing a vertical transect
• Survey employed 31 single-channel seismic profiles to inform sampling target selection
• Findings include specific, dated geological formations like Early Jurassic shelf carbonates

Limitations

• No column names or data schema are provided, limiting understanding of the dataset's structure
• Key metadata such as row count, file size, license, and author are consistently listed as unknown or None
• The 'last updated' metadata field shows a future date (2026), indicating potential platform ingestion errors

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data, from a cruise under the Australian-German Science Agreement

Collection Method

Geological sampling and single-channel seismic profiling from the research vessel Sonne

Time Range

1979 (cruise year); samples cover geological time from Jurassic to Quaternary

Freshness

2026-04-30 12:30:19.335331

Geography

Exmouth Plateau, Wallaby Plateau, Cuvier Abyssal Plain, and Wombat Plateau off Western Australia