AndreaBozzo/ceres-open-data-index huggingface dataset:
Joseph Bonaparte Gulf 30 m bathymetry and derived Morphological Surfaces

Australia has established a network of 58 marine parks within Commonwealth waters covering a total of 3.3 million square kilometres, or 40 per cent of our exclusive economic zone (excluding Australian Antarctic Territory). These parks span a range of settings, from near coastal and shelf habitats to abyssal plains. Parks Australia manages the park network through management plans that came into effect for all parks on 1 July 2018. Geoscience Australia is contributing to their management by collating and interpreting existing environmental data, and through the collection of new marine data.  “Eco-narrative” documents are being developed for those parks, where sufficient information is available, delivering collations and interpretations of seafloor geomorphology, oceanography and ecology. Many of these interpretations rely on bathymetric grids and their derived products, including those in this data release.


Geoscience Australia has developed a new marine seafloor classification scheme, which uses the two-part seafloor mapping morphology approach of Dove et al (2016). This new scheme is semi-hierarchical and the first step divides the slope of the seafloor into three Morphological Surface categories (Plain, &lt;2°; Slope, 2-10°; Escarpment, &gt;10°). This classification was applied to the portion of the Beaman and Spinnocia (2018) 30 m grid within the marine park. 


Beaman, R.J. and Spinoccia, M. (2018). High-resolution depth model for Northern Australia - 30 m. Geoscience Australia.


Dove, D., Bradwell, T., Carter, G., Cotterill, C., Gafeira, J., Green, S., Krabbendam, M., Mellet, C., Stevenson, A., Stewart, H., Westhead, K., Scott, G., Guinan, J., Judge, M. Monteys, X., Elvenes, S., Baeten, N., Dolan, M., Thorsnes, T., Bjarnadóttir, L., Ottesen, D. (2016). Seabed geomorphology: a twopart classification system. British Geological Survey, Open Report OR/16/001. 13 pages.

This research is supported by the National Environmental Science Program (NESP) Marine Biodiversity Hub through Project D1.

Tags: Marine Biodiversity Hub, National Environmental Science Program, Published_External, bathymetry, bathymetry grid, marine, marine data
Organization: Australian Ocean Data Network
The Variability in Formation Water Composition and its Implications for CO2 Storage Conditions

Regional geological properties of sedimentary basins play a significant role in determining the safety of CO2 storage. Four major trapping mechanism have been identified: Structural and stratigraphic trapping is the containment of supercritical CO2 by low permeability / low porosity rocks and is the dominant mechanism during injection and initial storage phase. Residual or capillary trapping is the retention of supercritical CO2 in the pore space between grains and tends to be most relevant on a
scale of tens to thousands of years. Solubility trapping is the uptake of CO2 into the formation water, which is considered to be the most important trapping mechanism over hundreds to millions of years (1).
Mineral trapping leads to the permanent immobilization of carbon through the precipitation of carbonate minerals.

This study assesses the conditions for solubility trapping in major Australian sedimentary basins. The total dissolved solid (TDS) concentration of the formation water has been compiled from over
900 wells as it, along with pressure and temperature, is a key variable controlling CO2 solubility and the associated change in fluid density. Fluid density is a critical factor in driving fluid advection which determines the rate of solubility trapping and downward migration in the formation. This process is vital in reducing the amount of highly mobile supercritical CO2 at the top of the formation and storing it as dissolved CO2 in deeper parts of the formation.

Tags: Earth Sciences, GA Publication, Poster/Image, Published_External, carbon dioxide, marine
Organization: Australian Ocean Data Network
Seabed Mud Content Across the Australian Continental EEZ, 2011

This dataset provides the spatially continuous data of seabed mud content (sediment fraction &lt; 63 Âµm) expressed as a weight percentage ranging from 0 to 100%, presented in 0.01 decimal degree resolution raster format. 

The dataset covers the Australian continental EEZ, including seabed surrounding Tasmania. It does not include areas surrounding Macquarie Island, and the Australian Territories of Norfolk Island, Christmas Island, and Cocos (Keeling) Islands or Australia's marine jurisdiction off of the Territory of Heard and McDonald Islands and the Australian Antarctic Territory.

This dataset supersedes previous predictions of sediment mud content for the Australian Margin with demonstrated improvements in accuracy. Accuracy of predictions varies based on density of underlying data and level of seabed complexity. Artefacts occur in this dataset as a result of insufficient samples in relevant regions. This dataset is intended for use at national and regional scales. The dataset may not be appropriate for use at local scales in areas where sample density is insufficient to detect local variation in sediment properties. To obtain the most accurate interpretation of sediment distribution in these areas, it is recommended that additional samples be collected and interpolations updated.

Tags: AU-EEZ, Earth Sciences, GIS Dataset, National, National dataset, Published_External, geoscience, mapping, marine, marine jurisdiction, seabed, sedimentology
Organization: Australian Ocean Data Network
Fast Repetition Rate Fluorometry (FRRF) data collected on the RV L'Astrolabe from 26/12/2003 to 01/01/2004 (Dumont d'Urville - Hobart)

These data were collected on the RV L'Astrolabe (platform code: FHZI) from 26/12/2003 to 01/01/2004 on a trip from Dumont d'Urville to Hobart.

Maximum photochemical efficiency of photosystem II (PSII), also called maximum quantum yield of PSII (Fv/Fm), has become one of the most widely utilized fluorescence parameters in phytoplankton research. It represents the potential photochemical efficiency, which is the probability that the light energy captured by the photosynthetic apparatus is being utilized as photochemistry. Fv/Fm has been shown to have an instant response to variations in physical and chemical properties and is interpreted as a diagnostic of the overall health or competence of phytoplankton. Together with the absorption cross section area of PSII and chlorophyll concentration, it can be used to measure primary production (Cheah et al. 2011, Deep Sea Research).

Seawater from 3 m depth was supplied continuously from the ship’s clean seawater line. FRR fluorescence yields were measured continuously at 1 minute intervals in dark-adapted state (! 15 minutes dark-adaptation) using a flash sequence consisting of a series of 100 subsaturation flashlets (1.1 μs flash duration and 2.8 μs interflash period) and a series of 20 relaxation flashlets (1.1 μs flash duration and 51.6 μs interflash period).

Tags: Continents | Antarctica, Countries | Australia, Fast Repetition Rate Fluorometer (FRRF), Global/Oceans | Southern Ocean, Instrument's photomultiplier electronic sensitivity (1-256), Latitude, Longitude, Maximum quantum yield (Fv/Fm), Minimum fluorescence in the light chamber of the FRRF (also used as a proxy for biomass), Oceans | Ocean Temperature | Sea Surface Temperature, Oceans | Salinity/density | Salinity, Photosynthesis, connectivity between PSII reaction centres under actinic light, functional absorption cross section of PSII (measure of the proportion of light harvested for photoc, maximum fluorescence in the light chamber of the FRRF, maximum quantum yield of photosystem II ( (FmL - FoL) / FmL), primary production, time constant of electron transport from PSII to PSI, variable fluorescence (FmL - FoL)
Organization: Australian Ocean Data Network
Australian Bathymetry and Topography WCS

The Australian Bathymetry and Topography web service includes the topography of Australia and the bathymetry of the adjoining Australian Exclusive Economic Zone. The area selected does not include data from Australia's marine jurisdiction offshore from the Territory of Heard and McDonald Islands and the Australian Antarctic Territory. The 2009 bathymetry data were compiled by Geoscience Australia from multibeam and single beam data, and along with the topography (onshore) data, was derived from multiple sources. As per the 2005 grid, the 0.0025 dd resolution is only supported where direct bathymetric observations are sufficiently dense (e.g. where swath bathymetry data or digitised chart data exist) (Webster and Petkovic, 2005). In areas where no sounding data are available (in waters off the Australian shelf), the grid is based on the 2 arc minute ETOPO (Smith and Sandwell, 1997) and 1 arc minute ETOPO (Amante and Eakins, 2008) satellite derived bathymetry. The topographic data (onshore data) is based on the revised Australian 0.0025dd topography grid (Geoscience Australia, 2008), the 0.0025dd New Zealand topography grid (Geographx, 2008) and the 90m SRTM DEM (Jarvis et al, 2008).

Tags: Australia, Earth Sciences, Published_External, WCS, baselines, bathymetry, marine, oceans, topography, web service
Organization: Australian Ocean Data Network
Deep-sea bio-physical variables as surrogates for biological assemblages, an example from the Lord Howe Rise

Deep sea environments occupy much of the sea floor, yet little is known about diversity patterns of biological assemblages from these environments. Physical mapping technologies and their availability are increasing rapidly. Sampling deep-sea biota over vast areas of the deep sea, however, is time consuming, difficult, and costly. Consequently, the growing need to manage and conserve marine resources, particularly deep sea areas that are sensitive to anthropogenic disturbance and change, is leading the promotion of physical data as surrogates to predict biological assemblages.  However, few studies have directly examined the predictive ability of these surrogates. The physical environment and biological assemblages were surveyed for two adjacent areas - the western flank of Lord Howe Rise (LHR) and the Gifford Guyot - spanning combined water depths of 250 to 2,200 m depth on the northern part of the LHR, in the southern Pacific Ocean. Multibeam acoustic surveys were used to generate large-scale geomorphic classification maps that were superimposed over the study area. Forty two towed-video stations were deployed across the area capturing 32 hours of seabed video, 6,229 still photographs, that generated 3,413 seabed characterisations of physical and biological variables. In addition, sediment and biological samples were collected from 36 stations across the area. The northern Lord Howe Rise was characterised by diverse but sparsely distributed faunas for both the vast soft-sediment environments as well as the discrete rock outcrops. Substratum type and depth were the main variables correlated with benthic assemblage composition. Soft-sediments were characterised by low to moderate levels of bioturbation, while rocky outcrops supported diverse but sparse assemblages of suspension feeding invertebrates, such as cold water corals and sponges which in turn supported epifauna, dominated by ophiuroids and crinoids. While deep environments of the LHR flank .

Tags: AU, Earth Sciences, External Publication, Published_External, Scientific Journal Paper, abiotic surrogates, backscatter, geomorphology, marine, marine biodiversity
Organization: Australian Ocean Data Network
Huon Estuary Study 1996/1998 - Phytoplankton Pigment and Optical Data

The Huon Estuary Study was undertaken by CSIRO Marine Research between 1996 and 1998. The Huon Estuary is in South Eastern Tasmania. This record references the optical absorption data from both the spatial (HES) and the weekly monitoring (CM) surveys of the Huon Estuary Study. This dataset includes phytoplankton, spectral absorption and HPLC pigments. Final data for the pigment and phytoplankton data has been stored within the HES database which has been refered to by metadata record 'Huon Estuary Study 1996/1998 - Database'. The final datasets have also been written to cdrom as text files for archiving purposes by the Data Centre, Hobart. The spectral absortion data is scheduled to be reworked and will be added to the archive when it becomes available.

Organization: Australian Ocean Data Network
Examination of Samples from Arabella No. 1, Candace No. 1 and Kybra No. 1, Offshore Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia, for Triassic Conodonts

Examination of samples from· Arabella No.1, Candace No.1 and Kybra No.1, offshore Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia, for Triassic conodonts.

Tags: AU-WA, Earth Sciences, GA Publication, Professional Opinion, Published_External, marine
Organization: Australian Ocean Data Network
RV Investigator Voyage IN2026_V01 EM2040 MKII Multibeam Echosounder Data

This record describes multibeam echosounder data collected on IN2026_V01, titled "Cook Ice Ecosystems and Sediments (COOKIES)." The voyage took place between January 02, 2026 and February 25, 2026 (AEST), departing from Hobart and returning to Hobart.

The EM2040MK2 provides a 0.4 degree by 0.7 degree angular resolution. The echosounder's nominal frequency is 400 kHz (with a range of 200-700 kHz) and it operated in dual swath mode. 

Data are stored in .kmall raw format for bathymetry and backscatter and .kmwcd format for watercolumn backscatter at CSIRO. There are 24 files totalling 11.7 GB of raw data and 24 files totalling 58.1 GB of watercolumn data in this dataset. 

Sound velocity profiles were applied to this data during data acquisition. Bathymetry data contained in *.kmall format are corrected for motion and position. 

GPS tide was computed using the EGM2008 model and applied to the processed data. Processed data has had outliers removed. 

Additional information regarding this dataset, including further information on processing streams, is contained in the GSM data acquisition and processing report.

Organization: Australian Ocean Data Network
Bottom currents, sedimentation and ice-sheet retreat facies successions on the MacRobertson shelf, East Antarctica

Measurements of water turbidity, currents, seafloor sediment samples and geophysical data document the sedimentary processes and the Late Quaternary sedimentary history of a continental shelf valley system on the East Antarctic continental margin.

Tags: AQ, Antarctic data, Earth Sciences, External Publication, Published_External, Scientific Journal Paper, geomorphology, marine, sedimentary basins
Organization: Australian Ocean Data Network
SI 1014 Lacepede Channel, WA (HIPP) Bathymetry Acquisition (20210013S)

The Lacepede Channel bathymetry survey was acquired for the Australian Hydrographic Office (AHO) onboard the MV Pacific Conquest and USV Blue Shadow - 901 during the period 19 May 2021 – 22 Sep 2021. This was a contracted survey conducted for the Australian Hydrographic Office by Fugro as part of the Hydroscheme Industry Partnership Program. The survey area encompases an area in Lacepede Channel, Western Australia. Bathymetry data was acquired using a Kongsberg EM2040 Mk II, and processed using Caris Hips &amp; Sips processing software. The dataset was then exported as a 30m resolution, 32 bit floating point GeoTIFF grid of the survey area.

This dataset is not to be used for navigational purposes.

Tags: AusSeabed, EARTH SCIENCES, Earth Science | Oceans | Bathymetry/Seafloor Topography | Bathymetry, HVC_144641, LiDAR, MV Pacific Conquest, Multibeam, Oceans, Published External, Published_External, USV Blue Shadow 901, VH-VEH Cessna 441, bathymetric grids, bathymetry, marine, multibeam
Organization: Australian Ocean Data Network
Kimberley Marine Park 30 m bathymetry and derived Morphological Surfaces

Australia has established a network of 58 marine parks within Commonwealth waters covering a total of 3.3 million square kilometres, or 40 per cent of our exclusive economic zone (excluding Australian Antarctic Territory). These parks span a range of settings, from near coastal and shelf habitats to abyssal plains. Parks Australia manages the park network through management plans that came into effect for all parks on 1 July 2018. Geoscience Australia is contributing to their management by collating and interpreting existing environmental data, and through the collection of new marine data.  “Eco-narrative” documents are being developed for those parks, where sufficient information is available, delivering collations and interpretations of seafloor geomorphology, oceanography and ecology. Many of these interpretations rely on bathymetric grids and their derived products, including those in this data release.


Geoscience Australia has developed a new marine seafloor classification scheme, which uses the two-part seafloor mapping morphology approach of Dove et al (2016). This new scheme is semi-hierarchical and the first step divides the slope of the seafloor into three Morphological Surface categories (Plain, &lt;2°; Slope, 2-10°; Escarpment, &gt;10°). This classification was applied to the portion of the Beaman and Spinnocia (2018) 30 m grid within the Kimberley Marine Park. 


This research is supported by the National Environmental Research Program Marine Biodiversity Hub through Project D1.


Beaman, R.J. and Spinoccia, M. (2018). High-resolution depth model for Northern Australia - 30 m. Geoscience Australia.


Dove, D., Bradwell, T., Carter, G., Cotterill, C., Gafeira, J., Green, S., Krabbendam, M., Mellet, C., Stevenson, A., Stewart, H., Westhead, K., Scott, G., Guinan, J., Judge, M. Monteys, X., Elvenes, S., Baeten, N., Dolan, M., Thorsnes, T., Bjarnadóttir, L., Ottesen, D. (2016). Seabed geomorphology: a twopart classification system. British Geological Survey, Open Report OR/16/001. 13 pages.

Tags: EARTH SCIENCES, Marine Biodiversity Hub, National Environmental Science Program, Published_External, bathymetry, bathymetry grid, marine, marine data
Organization: Australian Ocean Data Network
Improving the understanding of the Canning Basin

Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program has established new techniques to collect onshore pre-competitive datasets on an unprecedented scale. The Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS) is a Western Australian Government initiative that aims to encourage exploration for the long-term sustainability of the state’s resources sector. Integration of EFTF and EIS datasets has improved understanding of the geology across northern Australia, and the associated energy, mineral and groundwater resources potential. 

The onshore Canning Basin covers approximately 530 000 km2, and has proven prospectivity for conventional oil and gas, mainly in the northern part of the basin. Potential exists for unconventional resources that remain largely unexplored and untested. Gas resource assessments suggest that the basin has significant potential for recoverable shale gas and tight gas. Even with exploration continuing along the flanks of the Fitzroy Trough, the Canning Basin remains one of the least explored Paleozoic basins in the world (DMIRS, 2020). 

Australia’s longest onshore seismic line, 18GA-KB1, acquired in the southern Canning Basin addresses a long standing data gap across the Kidson Sub-basin and Waukarlycarly Embayment that assists with the resource evaluation of this frontier region. The Kidson Sub-basin covers 91 000 km2 and has a sag basin architecture. Preliminary interpretation of the seismic data indicates that the sedimentary basin is approximately 6 km deep, and includes a conformable package of Ordovician–Devonian siliciclastic, carbonate and evaporite facies of exploration interest. The Carboniferous succession is interpreted as not being present. Located on the western end of the seismic line, the newly drilled deep stratigraphic well Waukarlycarly 1 penetrated 2680.53 m of Cenozoic and Paleozoic strata and provides stratigraphic control for the geology imaged in the Waukarlycarly Embayment. A comprehensive elemental and δ13C isotope chemostratigraphy study assists with stratigraphic correlations within Ordovician sedimentary strata across the region (Forbes et al., 2020a, b).

Oil and gas discoveries throughout the Canning Basin were generated from Paleozoic marine source rocks, deposited under stratified oxic and euxinic water columns. Three distinct petroleum systems, the Ordovician (Larapintine 2), Late Devonian (Larapintine 3) and latest Devonian–early Carboniferous (Larapintine 4), are recognized based on the geochemical character of their associated fluids and each display strong stratigraphic control (Carr et al., 2020). Widespread generation of gas from Paleozoic sources is evident from molecular analyses of gases recovered from petroleum wells and fluid inclusions (Boreham et al., 2020). Currently the Larapintine 2 Petroleum System is deemed most prospective system in the Kidson Sub-basin.

Tags: Canning Basin, EARTH SCIENCES, EFTF, Exploring For The Future, GEOLOGY, Published_External
Organization: Australian Ocean Data Network
Contrasting marginal sediments of a seasonally flooded saline lake - Lake Eliza, South Australia: significance for oil shale genesis

Lake Eliza is a hypersaline coastal lake in southeast South Australia, a region of winter rainfall and summer drought. It is fed by ground waters and has no connection with the sea. Salinity rises from &lt; 100 in winter to &gt; 360%() in summer, with accompanying fall in lake level. The lake contains a biota of generally non-marine lineage. Two areas of the lake margin exposed in summer were studied. One, on the western shore, was protected from prevailing winds, the other, on the eastern shore was exposed to wave attack. The western shore is an area of fine carbonate sediments with high organic content. The eastern shore is an area of moderately sorted quartz-carbonate sand of lower organic content.  The sediments of Lake Eliza are similar to some of those described from the Wilkins Peak Member of the Green River Formation, USA, and a comparison between the two systems suggests that the lamosite oil shales of the type found in the Green River Formation may not have been deposited in a fresh to brackish lake floor as has been supposed, but could have formed beneath cyanobacterial mats along a protected margin of a saline lake, in a setting equivalent to the western margin of Lake Eliza.

Tags: Earth Sciences, GA Publication, Journal, Published_External, SA
Organization: Australian Ocean Data Network