The Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia, contains three newly discovered submerged coral reefs covering 80 km². The reefs were identified using multibeam swath sonar, seabed sampling, and underwater video, with their upper surfaces at a mean depth of 28.6±0.5 meters. This dataset from Geoscience Australia, last updated in March 2026, documents these features which suggest past reef growth under different climate conditions.
Use Cases
- Mapping submerged reef habitats based on multibeam sonar bathymetry data.
- Studying coral refuge potential based on depth and location data mentioned in the description.
- Analyzing past climate conditions based on evidence of late Quaternary reef growth.
- Comparing reef detection methods based on the use of sonar versus satellite imagery.
Strengths
- Covers a specific area of 80 km² with three distinct reefs.
- Includes precise depth measurements (mean of 28.6±0.5 m).
- Data collection involved multiple methods: multibeam sonar, seabed sampling, and underwater video.
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Row count and sample data are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
Provenance
- Source
- Geoscience Australia Data
- Collection Method
- Multibeam swath sonar surveys supplemented with seabed sampling and underwater video.
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-03-25 17:39:56.443060; freshness should be verified.
- Geography
- Southern Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia