Seabed Gravel Content Raster for Australian Continental EEZ

Seabed gravel content data provides a spatially continuous raster of sediment fraction weight percentages from 0 to 100% across the Australian continental Exclusive Economic Zone. The dataset, created by Geoscience Australia, supersedes previous predictions with improved accuracy and is intended for national and regional scale analysis.

Use Cases

• Analyze spatial patterns of seabed gravel content weight percentage across the Australian continental EEZ for marine habitat mapping.
• Assess prediction accuracy variations based on underlying sample density and seabed complexity levels noted in the metadata.
• Identify regions with insufficient samples that may contain artefacts, guiding future sediment sampling campaigns.
• Model sediment distribution at a 0.01 decimal degree resolution for regional-scale geological studies.

Strengths

• Spatially continuous coverage of the Australian continental EEZ, including the seabed surrounding Tasmania.
• Data supersedes previous predictions with demonstrated improvements in accuracy.
• Provided at a 0.01 decimal degree resolution raster format.

Limitations

• Accuracy varies and artefacts occur in regions with insufficient underlying sample data.
• Dataset may not be appropriate for local-scale analysis where sample density is low.
• Excludes areas surrounding Macquarie Island and several Australian Territories.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Predicted raster data superseding previous models, based on sediment samples and interpolation.

Time Range

2011

Freshness

Last updated March 2026.

Geography

Australian continental Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), including seabed surrounding Tasmania.