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 that extends for more than 90 km across the continental shelf at the northern end of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The dataset, hosted by the Australian Ocean Data Network, supports a new conceptual model for the formation of tidally incised shelf valleys. The record was last updated on April 10, 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling tidal erosion processes based on the mapped valley system geometry.
• Analyzing continental shelf morphology based on the multibeam sonar survey data.
• Testing geological formation hypotheses based on the proposed conceptual model for tidally incised valleys.

Strengths

• Multibeam sonar survey provides detailed bathymetric mapping.
• The dataset documents a valley system with specific dimensions: up to 220 m deep and over 90 km long.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Multibeam sonar survey

Time Range

null

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 16:56:06.917573; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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