Bathymetric Survey of Tidally Incised Valleys on the Northern Great Barrier Reef

A multibeam sonar survey mapped a shelf valley system up to 220 meters deep and extending over 90 kilometers across the continental shelf at the northern end of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The data supports a new conceptual model for the formation of tidally incised shelf valleys, challenging the predominant fluvial erosion theory. This dataset is hosted by the Australian Ocean Data Network and was last updated in June 2026.

Use Cases

• Validate models of tidal erosion and sediment transport based on the described valley dimensions and location.
• Compare shelf morphology between tropical carbonate and other continental shelf systems using the mapped valley features.
• Study the impact of tidal currents on continental shelf geomorphology based on the proposed conceptual model.

Strengths

• Includes detailed bathymetric mapping of a valley system over 90 km in length.
• Provides specific depth measurements, with valleys up to 220 m deep.
• Data is associated with a specific, novel conceptual model for valley formation.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to data_gov_au, focusing on a single region.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Multibeam sonar survey

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-05 06:57:35.309280; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Northern Great Barrier Reef, Australia, adjacent to the southern edge of the Gulf of Papua