Seabed Environments of the Eastern Joseph Bonaparte Gulf

The Van Diemen Rise in the eastern Joseph Bonaparte Gulf, Northern Australia, was surveyed across four study areas from outer to inner shelf. The dataset includes 1,154 square kilometres of multibeam sonar data providing 100% seabed coverage, 340 line-km of sub-bottom profiles, and geological, biological, and oceanographic samples from 63 stations. It integrates sedimentological, geochemical, geophysical, and biological data to investigate the region's late-Quaternary evolution and relationships between physical environment and benthic biota.

Use Cases

• Mapping seabed morphology and bathymetry based on multibeam sonar data.
• Analyzing relationships between sediment geochemistry and benthic community structure for biodiversity prediction.
• Investigating late-Quaternary geological evolution using sub-bottom profiles and sediment samples.
• Modeling sediment transport dynamics based on oceanographic data from four stations.
• Placing Van Diemen Rise benthic biodiversity into the biogeographic context of northern Australian marine regions.

Strengths

• Provides 100% seabed coverage via multibeam sonar for each of four study areas.
• Integrates geological, biological, and oceanographic data from 63 sampling stations.
• Includes a novel assessment of sediment and water quality for surrogacy research.

Limitations

• Specific column names and data formats are not provided in the metadata.
• The dataset's size, row count, and license information are unknown.
• Update dates across listings show minor inconsistencies (2026-06-05 vs 2026-05-04 vs 2026-04-28).

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia and the Australian Institute of Marine Science under a Memorandum of Understanding.

Collection Method

Seabed mapping survey using multibeam sonar, sub-bottom profiling, and station-based sampling.

Freshness

2026-06-05

Geography

Van Diemen Rise, eastern Joseph Bonaparte Gulf, Northern Australia (Arafura-Timor Sea region).