Deep-Sea Geological Samples from 1979 RV Sonne Cruise off Western Australia

Preliminary results from a six-week 1979 geological cruise by the West German research vessel RV Sonne, conducted under the Australian-German Science Agreement. The cruise successfully occupied 120 sampling stations across the Exmouth Plateau, Wallaby Plateau, and Cuvier Abyssal Plain, collecting pre-Quaternary rocks, Quaternary cores, and manganese nodules. Data includes findings from 31 single-channel seismic profiles and samples from depths between 100 and 5200 meters.

Use Cases

• Classify rock types (e.g., Early Jurassic shelf carbonates, Middle Jurassic coal measures, volcaniclastics) based on sampling station location and depth.
• Analyze the distribution of pre-Quaternary rock samples versus Quaternary cores across the 102 stations on the Exmouth Plateau and 18 stations on the Wallaby Plateau.
• Correlate seismic profile data with sampled geological strata to map subsurface unconformities like the main Late Jurassic unconformity.
• Assess methane concentration levels from gas analysis data on Quaternary cores collected from the central Exmouth Plateau.
• Evaluate manganese nodule composition, specifically nickel and copper content, from samples taken at the southern and eastern margins of the Wallaby Plateau.

Strengths

• Data covers a specific, focused six-week cruise with 120 successfully occupied sampling stations.
• Includes samples from a wide depth range of 100 to 5200 meters, covering shelf to abyssal plain environments.
• Findings are supported by 31 single-channel seismic profiles used for target selection.

Limitations

• Dataset is a preliminary report from a single cruise in 1979, representing a temporal snapshot with no recent updates.
• Sample size for specific features is limited (e.g., only 13 stations yielded pre-Quaternary rocks on the Wallaby Plateau).
• Core data formats (PDF, HTML) are not machine-ready tabular data, requiring manual extraction for analysis.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network, from the RV Sonne cruise under the Australian-German Science Agreement.

Collection Method

Direct sampling (dredging, coring) during a geological cruise, supported by single-channel seismic profiling.

Time Range

1979 (six-week cruise).

Freshness

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Geography

Exmouth Plateau, Wallaby Plateau, and Cuvier Abyssal Plain off the coast of Western Australia.