Ashmore Reef's sedimentological response to the Holocene sea level rise

Positioned at the transition zone of the major hydrocarbon provinces of Browse and Bonaparte Basins, Ashmore Reef is built on what is thought to be Pleistocene antecedent topography. This mature, ovoid, shelf-edge reef experiences the seasonal oceanic influences of Indian Ocean and of the Indonesian-Through-Flow. The model for its development is derived from the post glacial (past 11,000 years) relative sea level curve, C14 dated facies changes and the reef growth phases extrapolated from the One Tree Reef model (Marshall & Davis 1982). A thorough visual examination of the reef was augmented with a series of 12 vibro-cores through algal-foraminiferal sand and coral, across the bioturbated platform. Changes in the lagoonal sediment facies were carbon dated giving dates ranging from 970 to 2020 (~70 years) BP. They indicated a major bio-facies change from robust vertical coral columns to an algal dominated reef crest and reef flats as sea level stabilised at ~2000 BP. Ashhmore Reef is presently characterised by high biodiversity and extensive coral growth, broad reef flats littered with coral boulders, and three vegetated cays. An extensive series of highly mobile and heavily bioturbated biogenic sand sheets adjoin two lagoons. Both are within a pronounced ovoid, algal-cemented, reef rim. The sediments comprised principally of Halimeda sp., coral fragments, foraminifera, molluscs and a range of coralline algae that infill the lagoon at up to 0.73 cm/yr. The three vegetated cays are capped with guano and all have wash-over deposits of pumice, wood, shell and coral.

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Date (Publication)
2001-01-01T00:00:00
Citation identifier
Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/37510

Cited responsible party
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Author

Glenn, K.C.

 1
Author

Chaproniere, G.C.

 2
Author

Opdyke, B.N.

 3
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Owner

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
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Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

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Nanson, R.

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Topic category
  • Geoscientific information

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S
E
W


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Unknown
Keywords

  • External Publication

Theme

  • palaeontology

  • morphology

  • sequence stratigraphy

  • marine

Keywords

  • AU-NT

  • AU-WA

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

  • Earth Sciences

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  • Published_External

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

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CC-BY

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4.0

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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

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License

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Title

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

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2018-11-01T00:00:00
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https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

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Unclassified
Language
English
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UTF8

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Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

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OnLine resource

Related Product

Access information about the beagle and a selection of articles.

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Non geographic dataset
Other

External Publication

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Metadata constraints

Title

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified

Metadata

Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/a05f7892-b627-7506-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Title

GeoNetwork UUID

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8
Contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Point of contact

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

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Point of contact

Nanson, R.

 Place and Communities Internal Contact

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Document
Name

nonGeographicDataset

Alternative metadata reference

Title

Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with uuid

Citation identifier
eCatId/37510

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https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/a05f7892-b627-7506-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Date info (Creation)
2026-01-15T01:15:12.94Z
Date info (Creation)
2025-06-26T02:16:21.622Z
Date info (Creation)
2025-06-26T02:11:55.171Z
Date info (Creation)
2025-06-19T06:50:12.071Z
Date info (Revision)
2026-01-15T01:16:23.44Z
Date info (Creation)
2001-08-08T00:00:00

Metadata standard

Title

AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-3

Title

Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014

Edition

Version 2.0, September 2018

Citation identifier
https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551

 
 

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W


Keywords

marine morphology palaeontology sequence stratigraphy

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