Seabed Character Mapping in the Great Australian Bight, 2000-2001

The Great Australian Bight was the focus of a regional seafloor mapping study conducted by Geoscience Australia during 2000/2001. The report delineates four major geomorphological features and defines five acoustic echo facies based on 3.5kHz echo-sounding and seismic profiles, with interpretations captured in a GIS.

Use Cases

• Delineating continental shelf and slope boundaries based on captured geomorphological features.
• Classifying seabed sediment types based on the five defined acoustic echo facies.
• Supporting marine spatial planning based on integrated GIS data for terraces, basins, and canyons.
• Analyzing sedimentary processes in deep water based on the distribution of acoustic facies.

Strengths

• Data is integrated into a Geographical Information System (GIS) with captured boundaries and attributes.
• Analysis is based on interpretation of 3.5kHz echo-sounding records and high-resolution seismic profiles.
• Defines five distinct acoustic facies (I, II, IIIA, IIIC, IIID) with specific geological interpretations.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Primary data formats are PDF and HTML, which may require extraction for computational analysis.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Regional seafloor mapping study involving interpretation of 3.5kHz echo-sounding records and high-resolution seismic profiles, groundtruthed against seafloor samples.

Time Range

2000/2001

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-30 14:31:57.512632; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Great Australian Bight, South and Southwest region of Australia, including the continental shelf, slope, rise, and South Australian abyssal plain.