Carpentaria Reefs: Submerged Coral Reef Discovery in Australia's Gulf

Two Geoscience Australia surveys in 2003 and 2005 discovered a new coral reef province in the Gulf of Carpentaria. The findings were documented in a video describing the use of multibeam sonar technology and Uranium/Thorium dating of drill-core samples. The data is hosted by the Australian Ocean Data Network and was last updated in 2026.

Use Cases

• Study the formation and age of submerged coral reefs based on Uranium/Thorium dating methods mentioned in the description
• Map underwater topography and reef structures based on multibeam sonar survey data
• Support marine conservation planning based on the discovery of a previously unknown reef province

Strengths

• Documents a significant discovery of a previously unknown coral reef province in Australia
• Based on two dedicated scientific surveys conducted in 2003 and 2005
• Utilizes specific technologies like multibeam sonar and Uranium/Thorium dating

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Marine surveys using multibeam sonar and drill-core sampling

Time Range

Surveys conducted in 2003 and 2005

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-04 07:21:05.761783; freshness should be verified

Geography

Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia