This service has been created specifically for display in the National Map and the chosen symbology may not suit other mapping applications. The Australian Topographic web map service is seamless national dataset coverage for the whole of Australia. These data are best suited to graphical applications. These data may vary greatly in quality depending on the method of capture and digitising specifications in place at the time of capture. The web map service portrays detailed graphic representation of features that appear on the Earth's surface. These features include the administration boundaries from the Geoscience Australia 250K Topographic Data, including state forest and reserves.

Terrain illumination correction is an important step in the normalisation of remotely sensed data for the inversion of land surface parameters, and for applications that aim to detect land surface change through time series analysis. An appropriate resolution of the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data with sufficient quality is critical for effective correction of remotely sensed data over mountainous areas. Conversely, using terrain illumination correction and scale-based analysis, such as filter bank analysis, the quality of DEM data can be evaluated relative to the scale of the target data. In this study, TanDEM-X Intermediate DEM (IDEM) data at 12 m and 30 m resolutions, and the 1-arc second Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data (~ 30 m resolution) were used to evaluate their absolute and relative effectiveness in terrain illumination correction for Landsat satellite optical data. The island of Tasmania in Australia has significant local terrain detail as well as high regional relief. This, together with its high latitude and wide variation in terrain illumination throughout the year, makes it an ideal study site to test correction methods and assess different resolution candidate DEM data. A set of images from both Landsat 7 and 8 multispectral bands (MS) and panchromatic (Pan) band were collected. These images were put through standard atmospheric and BRDF processing as well as terrain illumination correction using different sources of DEM. Comparisons were made by undertaking terrain correction with the various input DEMs and using visual and difference image methods to evaluate them. Quantitative Filter Bank analysis is also used to evaluate performance as a function of spatial scale. In total, five DEMs were used for the study, which include three at Landsat MS scale (derived from 12m and 30m IDEM and 1 sec SRTM data) and two at Landsat Pan scale (derived from 12m IDEM and 1 sec SRTM data). Results from the terrain illumination correction and filter bank analysis show that (provided the analysis is confined to areas without some specific data issues), although all data sets can carry out the task well, the IDEM 12 m resolution based datasets can resolve finer details of terrain shading than the SRTM based DEM. This indicates that IDEM can deliver better results in areas with detail-rich terrain monitored with Landsat data. However, since the data available for this study is a sample from an intermediate product, spikes and other noise artefacts not expected in operational data were prevalent. Noise artefacts occurred especially over areas covered by water. Operational use of the IDEM will require the removal of such noise artefacts, but from the present study we can say if that were fully achieved, the 12m resolution data could form the basis for better terrain correction of Landsat data. The filter bank analysis also found that both Landsat panchromatic data and IDEM 12 m data seem to be over-sampled; studies using even finer DEM data would be required to examine this further. It should be possible to correct for noise issues, as similar processing was carried out with SRTM data at an early stage to good effect. More detailed evaluation of the relative merits of the TanDEM-X based DEM compared with the SRTM based DEM data for terrain illumination correction may be possible when the WorldDEM product based on TanDEM-X data becomes routinely available with the water areas noise issues resolved.

This report provides an overview of non-seismic tsunami hazard along with scenario modelling of landslide generated tsunami initiated from the Kerguelen Plateau and is impact on the Australian and Antarctic coastlines.

In this Record new U-Pb SHRIMP zircon results are presented from nine samples from western South Australia and eastern Western Australia. This geochronological study was undertaken to provide temporal constraints on the crystalline basement geology beneath the Nullarbor Plain, to assist in geological interpretation of a reflection seismic transect (13GA-EG1) between the Albany-Fraser Province in the west and the central Gawler Craton in the east. This seismic line transects a region in which the crystalline basement geology is entirely buried beneath Neoproterozoic to Cenozoic sedimentary rocks. Consequently, the age, tectonic evolution and mineral potential of the crystalline basement in this region is very poorly understood. The new results complement the very limited pre-existing geochronology data from the Coompana Province and Madura Province, and provide a basis for comparison of geological ages in these provinces with the geological histories reconstructed for the adjacent provinces of the Gawler Craton to the east and the Albany-Fraser Province to the west.

The Great Artesian Basin Research Priorities Workshop, organised by Geoscience Australia (GA), was held in Canberra on 27 and 28 April 2016. Workshop attendees represented a spectrum of stakeholders including government, policy, management, scientific and technical representatives interested in GAB-related water management. This workshop was aimed at identifying and documenting key science issues and strategies to fill hydrogeological knowledge gaps that will assist federal and state/territory governments in addressing groundwater management issues within the GAB, such as influencing the development of the next Strategic Management Plan for the GAB. This report summarises the findings out of the workshop.

The Australian Seismological Report 2015 provides a summary of earthquake activity for Australia for 2015. It also provides a summary of earthquakes of Magnitude 5+ in the Australian region, as well as an summary of magnitude 6+ earthquakes worldwide. It has dedicated state and territory earthquake information including: largest earthquakes in the year; largest earthquakes in the state; and tables detailing all earthquakes detected by Geoscience Australia during the year. There are also contributions from Department for State Development SA and Seismology Research Centre describing seismic networks and providing earthquake locations.

This record presents new zircon U-Pb geochronological data, obtained via Sensitive High Resolution Ion Microprobe (SHRIMP) for eleven samples of plutonic and volcanic rocks from the Lachlan Orogen, and the New England Orogen. The work is part of an ongoing Geochronology Project (Metals in Time), conducted by the Geological Survey of New South Wales (GSNSW) and Geoscience Australia (GA) under a National Collaborative Framework (NCF) agreement, to better understand the geological evolution of New South Wales. The results herein (summarised in Table 1.1 and Table 1.2) correspond to zircon U-Pb SHRIMP analysis undertaken on GSNSW mineral systems projects for the reporting period July 2015-June 2016. Lachlan Orogen In the Lachlan Orogen, the age of 418.9 ± 2.5 Ma for the Babinda Volcanics is consistent with the accepted stratigraphy of its parent Kopyje Group, agrees with the ages of other I-type volcanic rocks within the Canbelego-Mineral Hill Volcanic Belt and indicates eruption and emplacement of this belt during a single event. The age of the Shuttleton Rhyolite Member (421.9 ± 2.7 Ma) of the Amphitheatre Group is compatible with recent U-Pb dating of the Mount Halfway Volcanics, which interfingers with the Amphitheatre Group (MacRae, 1987). The age is also similar to nearby S-type granite intrusions, which suggests that the limited eruptive volcanic activity in the region was accompanied by local coeval plutonism. The results for the Babinda Volcanics and Shuttleton Rhyolite Member, in conjunction with previous GA dating and other dating and studies (summarised in Downes et al., 2016) establishes that significant igneous activity occurred between ~423 and ~418 Ma within the Cobar region but comprised two compositionally distinct but broadly contemporaneous belts of volcanics and comagmatic granite intrusions. The new age for the unnamed quartz monzonite at Hobbs Pipe constrains the maximum age of the hosted gold mineralisation to 414.7 ± 2.6 Ma. The wide range in ages for granites along the Gilmore Suture suggests that mineralisation in this region is not necessarily constrained to a single short-lived event. The new age of 413.5 ± 2.3 Ma for volcanics at Yerranderie indicates that that the Bindook Volcanic Complex was erupted over a relatively short period, and also indicates that the epithermal mineralisation at Yerranderie was not genetically related to the host volcanics but probably to a younger rifting event in the east Lachlan. New England Orogen Four units were dated from the Clarence River Supersuite in the New England Orogen. All four are between 255 and 256 Ma, demonstrating that these granites are related chemically, spatially, and temporally. While these four ages are indistinguishable, the current age span for Clarence River Supersuite is more than 40 million years. This wide age range indicates that classification of granites into the Clarence River Supersuite needs further refinement. The new age for the Newton Boyd Granodiorite (252.8 ± 1.0 Ma) is similar to some previously dated units within the Herries Supersuite, but both the Herries Supersuite and Stanthorpe Supersuite (into which the Herries Supersuite was reclassified by Donchak, 2013) incorporate units with a broad range of ages: the age distribution for the Stanthorpe Supersuite spans 50 million years. Classification of granites in the New England Orogen in New South Wales is worth revisiting. Two units were dated from the Drake Volcanics, nominally in the Wandsworth Volcanic Group and indicate that the middle to upper section of the Drake Volcanics, including the mineralising intrusions, were emplaced within the space of 1-2 million years. These results support a genetic and temporal link between the Au-Ag epithermal mineralisation at White Rock and Red Rock and their host Drake Volcanic packages rather than to younger regional plutonism (i.e., Stanthorpe Supersuite) or volcanism (i.e., Wandsworth Volcanics). The almost 10 Ma gap between the Drake Volcanics and the next lowest units of the Wandsworth Volcanic Group supports the argument for considering the Drake Volcanics a distinct unit.

Geoscience Australia conducted an absolute gravity survey during April and May 2015 in order to maintain and update the Australian Fundamental Gravity Network (AFGN). During the 2015 AFGN field campaign 35 absolute gravity readings were taken with an A10 gravity meter out of which 29 were new additions to the network. Six of the readings were taken over older AFGN stations in order to update and validate existing values. The re-measures found the previous gravity values agreed with the new A10 measurements within their stated uncertainties. Two ties were made with the CG5 gravity meter from a newly established station in order to resolve discrepancies with existing gravity values. 30 pre-existing stations were checked for their condition during this survey and 5 stations were found to be destroyed. GPS readings were taken at existing stations and their locations updated in the database as many of the old stations had poorly defined locations.

This gravity anomaly image has been generated from the Bouguer Gravity Anomaly Grid of Australia 2016. The Bouguer grid has been image enhanced and displayed as a hue-saturation-intensity (HSI) image with sun shading from the northeast. The product has been derived from observations stored in the Australian National Gravity Database (ANGD) as at February 2016 together with the 2013 New South Wales Riverina gravity survey. Out of the almost 1.8 million records in the ANGD approximately 1.4 million stations were used to generate this image. The image shows spherical cap Bouguer anomalies over onshore continental Australia. The data used in this image has been acquired by the Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments, the mining and exploration industry, universities and research organisations from the 1940's to the present day. The spherical cap Bouguer anomalies in this image are the combination of Bullard A and B corrections to the Free Air anomaly values using a density of 2670 kg/m^3.

As part of the four-year National CO2 Infrastructure Plan (NCIP), Geoscience Australia conducted a CO2 storage capacity assessment and pre-competitive data acquisition program in the offshore Gippsland Basin. This study was undertaken, in collaboration with CSIRO, to accelerate the identification of suitable long term CO2 storage sites for the development of CO2 storage infrastructure near the sources of major energy and production emissions in the Gippsland region in Victoria.