Seabed Environments of the Eastern Joseph Bonaparte Gulf, Northern Australia

Northern Australia's Van Diemen Rise was surveyed to map seabed environments across four study areas. Geoscience Australia and the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences collected 1,154 square kilometres of multibeam sonar data, 340 line-km of sub-bottom profiles, and geological and biological samples from 63 stations. The data supports research into late-Quaternary evolution and relationships between physical environment and marine biota.

Use Cases

• Modeling late-Quaternary seabed evolution based on geological and geophysical survey data.
• Investigating relationships between physical environment and benthic community structure using combined geological and biological samples.
• Conducting surrogacy research for biodiversity prediction using geochemical sediment and water quality assessments.
• Analyzing sediment transport dynamics based on oceanographic wave, tide, and current data collected at four stations.

Strengths

• Multibeam sonar provides 100% seabed coverage for each of the four study areas.
• Integrates geological (sedimentological, geochemical, geophysical) and biological (macro-benthic, infaunal) data from 63 stations.
• Includes 1,154 square kilometres of multibeam data and 340 line-km of sub-bottom profiles.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the specific survey region.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

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

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-30 15:13:16.260066; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Van Diemen Rise, eastern Joseph Bonaparte Gulf, Northern Australia.