Authors / CoAuthors
Nichol, S.L. | Anderson, T.J. | Battershill, C. | Brooke, B.P.
Abstract
The Carnarvon shelf at Point Cloates, Western Australia, is characterised by a series of prominent ridges and hundreds of mounds that provide hardground habitat for coral and sponge gardens. The largest ridge is 20 m high, extends 15 km alongshore in 60 m water depth and is interpreted as a drowned fringing reef. To landward, smaller ridges up to 1.5 km long and 16 m high are aligned to the north-northeast and are interpreted as relict aeolian dunes. Mounds are less than 5 m high and may also have a sub-aerial origin. In contrast, the surrounding seafloor is sandy with relatively low densities of epibenthic organisms. The dune ridges are estimated to be Late Pleistocene in age and their preservation is attributed to cementation of calcareous sands to form aeolianite, prior to the postglacial marine transgression. On the outer shelf, sponges grow on isolated low profile ridges at ~85 m and 105 m depth and are also interpreted as partially preserved relict shorelines.
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nonGeographicDataset
eCat Id
70776
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Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
Canberra
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2601
Australia
Keywords
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- External PublicationMonograph Contribution
- ( Theme )
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- continental shelf
- ( Theme )
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- abiotic surrogates
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- habitat
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- multibeam
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- marine
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- AU-WA
- Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
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- Earth Sciences
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- Published_Internal
Publication Date
2010-07-30T00:00:00
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geoscientificInformation
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