Carpentaria Reefs: Submerged Coral Reef Discovery Surveys

Two Geoscience Australia surveys in 2003 and 2005 discovered 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 added a new coral reef province to Australia's marine zone.

Use Cases

• Study the discovery and mapping of submerged coral reefs based on multibeam sonar survey data.
• Analyze the age and formation history of coral reefs based on Uranium/Thorium dating of core samples.
• Support marine conservation planning based on the identification of a new coral reef province.

Strengths

• Documents a novel discovery of previously unknown submerged coral reefs.
• Describes the use of specific, advanced technologies: multibeam sonar and Uranium/Thorium dating.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The primary data format is video, which may not be directly usable for quantitative analysis without extraction.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Multibeam sonar surveys and Uranium/Thorium dating of drill-core samples.

Time Range

Surveys conducted in 2003 and 2005.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-27 19:57:43.191713; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia.