Carpentaria Reefs: Submerged Coral Reef Discovery in Australia

Two Geoscience Australia surveys in 2003 and 2005 discovered previously unknown submerged coral reefs in the Gulf of Carpentaria. The reefs were identified using new multibeam sonar technology and their age was determined via Uranium/Thorium dating of drill-core samples at the Australian National University. This discovery established a new coral reef province within Australia's marine zone.

Use Cases

• Study the formation and age of submerged coral reefs based on Uranium/Thorium dating data
• Map underwater geological features based on multibeam sonar survey data
• Analyze the distribution of a newly discovered coral reef province based on survey locations
• Support marine conservation planning based on the discovery of a new reef system

Strengths

• Documents a significant scientific discovery of a previously unknown coral reef province
• Uses specific, advanced methodologies: multibeam sonar and Uranium/Thorium dating
• Based on two dedicated Geoscience Australia surveys (238 and 276)

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Data is presented as a video/HTML story, which may limit direct quantitative analysis

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Surveys conducted by Geoscience Australia using multibeam sonar and drill-core sampling

Time Range

Surveys conducted in 2003 and 2005

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-23 03:48:21.491551; freshness should be verified

Geography

Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia