Seabed Sediment Composition in the Petrel Sub-Basin, Australian EEZ

Spatially continuous raster grids at 0.0025 decimal degree resolution provide the weight percentage of seabed gravel (>2000 µm), mud (<63 µm), and sand (63-2000 µm) in the Petrel sub-basin within Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone. This dataset supersedes previous predictions with demonstrated improvements in accuracy, though accuracy varies with underlying data density and seabed complexity. The dataset is intended for basin-scale use and is produced by the Australian Ocean Data Network.

Use Cases

• Modeling sediment transport patterns based on gravel, mud, and sand content fractions.
• Assessing seabed habitat suitability for benthic organisms based on sediment type distribution.
• Planning offshore infrastructure projects based on basin-scale seabed substrate maps.
• Validating and improving geological models of the Petrel sub-basin based on updated sediment predictions.

Strengths

• Provides sediment fractions as weight percentages (0-100%) for three distinct grain-size classes.
• Offers data at a 0.0025 decimal degree resolution raster grid format.
• Supersedes previous predictions with demonstrated improvements in accuracy.

Limitations

• Accuracy varies based on density of underlying data and level of seabed complexity; artefacts occur from insufficient samples.
• The dataset may not be appropriate for use at smaller scales where sample density is insufficient.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Prediction and interpolation from seabed samples, presented as raster grids.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-05 01:23:35.491938; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Petrel sub-basin within the Australian continental Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).