Seabed Sand Content Across the Australian Continental EEZ, 2011

Australian Ocean Data Network provides a spatially continuous raster dataset of seabed sand content for the Australian continental Exclusive Economic Zone, including Tasmania. The data expresses sand fraction (63-2000 mm) as a weight percentage from 0 to 100% at a 0.01 decimal degree resolution. This 2011 dataset supersedes previous predictions with improved accuracy, though accuracy varies with underlying data density and seabed complexity.

Use Cases

• Modeling seabed habitat suitability based on sediment sand content.
• Analyzing sediment transport and deposition patterns across the continental shelf.
• Creating baseline maps for environmental impact assessments based on seabed composition.
• Validating regional oceanographic models with spatially continuous sediment data.

Strengths

• Spatially continuous coverage of the Australian continental EEZ at 0.01 decimal degree resolution.
• Supersedes previous predictions with demonstrated improvements in accuracy.
• Explicitly defines sand fraction as particles 63-2000 mm in size, expressed as a weight percentage.

Limitations

• Contains artefacts due to insufficient samples in some regions and may not be appropriate for local-scale analysis in those areas.
• Excludes areas surrounding Macquarie Island and several Australian Territories.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Predicted raster dataset derived from underlying sample data, superseding previous predictions.

Time Range

2011

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-27 17:42:55.250511; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australian continental Exclusive Economic Zone, including seabed surrounding Tasmania.