The MARine Sediment (MARS) database contains detailed information on seabed sediment characteristics for samples collected from Australia's marine jurisdiction, including the Australian Antarctic Territory. It is an important scientific resource that includes sediment properties from seabed and sub-seabed samples spanning coastal, continental shelf and deep sea locations. Analytical properties include grain size, carbonate content, mineralogy, geochemical properties and age determinations. MARS currently holds approximately 100,000 sample records and new data are being added as they become available. Please contact us at ausseabed@ga.gov.au if you wish to contribute marine sediment data to the MARS database.

The national Marine Sediments collection is a scientific resource that includes information for samples collected within the Australian marine jurisdiction, including location, water depth, sampling method and sample descriptions. Data are provided from quantitative analyses of the samples, such as grain size, mud, sand, gravel and carbonate concentrations. Additional analyses on some samples include mineralogy, age determinations, geochemical properties, and physical attributes for down-core samples including bulk density, p-wave velocity, porosity and magnetic susceptibility. Images and graphics are presented, where available. MARS currently holds >40,000 sample and sub-sample records, and approximately 200,000 records describing the characteristics of these samples. New data are being added as they become available. <b>Value: </b>Seabed sediment data is used to characterise the surface geology of the sea floor, important in resource exploration, marine zone management and understanding the physical environment. <b>Scope: </b>Samples were collected from Australia's marine jurisdiction, including the Australian Antarctic Territory. >40,000 sample and sub-sample records, and approximately 200,000 records describing the characteristics of these samples.

<div>Geoscience Australia maintains a national collection of marine geological samples and analytical data from across the Australian region. Digital records of these datasets are held within the Marine Sediment Database (MARS), available as an online resource of c. 2.6 million entries. Here we have extracted data from MARS to collate sediment properties for over 15,000 seabed samples for use as a standalone dataset. Analytical data includes textural composition (mud, sand, gravel), summary statistics for particle size distributions, textural class and calcium carbonate values (where available). Information on sample water depth, location and marine survey is also provided. The sample set spans the coast, continental shelf, slope and deep ocean locations across the Australian marine region (covering the extent of the AusBathyTopo 250m 2023 grid). This dataset has utility for a broad range of purposes including seabed characterisation, sediment transport modelling, habitat characterisation, seabed engineering studies and fundamental geological and sedimentological research.</div><div><br></div><div>Additional metadata of this dataset are provided in the word document accompanied with the dataset. The metadata document describes the attribute table, the sediment carbonate classification and the sediment facies.</div>