Quaternary Sediment Cores from the Southern Fairway Basin (Tasman Sea)

Thirteen piston cores of sediment, pore water, and gas were collected from the Southern Fairway Basin on the Lord Howe Rise in 1999. The cores, ranging from 1250 to 2753 meters below sea level and 405 to 758 cm long, contain nannofossil ooze with color, magnetic susceptibility, and pore water chemistry data. This dataset was created by the Australian Ocean Data Network to assess gas and petroleum potential.

Use Cases

• Modeling methane flux and anaerobic oxidation processes based on pore water sulfate and methane concentration profiles.
• Correlating sediment color changes with geochemical redox fronts based on described magnetic susceptibility and color data.
• Assessing the thermogenic origin of hydrocarbons based on the presence of ethane, propane, and higher hydrocarbons mentioned in the description.
• Studying shallow sedimentary processes and Fe remobilization under anoxic conditions as described in the dataset.

Strengths

• Contains 13 distinct sediment cores with documented recovery depths and lengths.
• Cores include multi-parameter data: sediment color, magnetic susceptibility, pore water chemistry (SO42-), and gas composition.
• Provides a specific geological context for the Lord Howe Rise and Southern Fairway Basin.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The description notes longer cores with less-oxidised sediment are needed for full understanding.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Collected via 13 piston cores taken by the RV L'Atalante during the ZoNiCo 5 survey in 1999.

Time Range

Cores likely represent sediment deposited over less than 800,000 years (Quaternary period).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-05 06:53:51.548379; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Southern Fairway Basin on the Lord Howe Rise in the Tasman Sea.