Geoscience Australia Marine Survey 282 Post-Survey Report: Shallow Gas and Benthic Habitat Mapping, Arafura Sea

A range of geophysical indicators have been used to infer the presence of shallow gas in the Arafura Sea. The existence of shallow gas has been confirmed by the analysis of core material obtained during the survey. This sampled gas has a microbial origin related to decay of organic matter in Holocene mud-filled channels. However, geophysical data indicates that another source of gas exists in deeper parts of the sedimentary section and this gas appears to be migrating up from depth. Intense pockmark fields (~350/km2) are often developed above the mud-filled channels but they have also been recorded away from these channels. The development and density of the pockmark fields appears to be related to sea bed sediment type, microbial gas production within the mud-filled channels and supply of fluids from deeper within the sedimentary section. Correlation of sub-bottom profile data with conventional seismic data also indicates that there are links between deep first-order Proterozoic faults, second-order Jurassic faults and third-order faults to sea bed observed in sub-bottom profiles.


The detailed sea bed mapping carried out during the survey has also shown correlations between habitat and biodiversity of various benthic fauna. Areas of high biodiversity and abundance generally correlated with harder substrates. In these areas, sea whips and fans, soft corals, hydroids, crinoids and octocorals were frequently identified, with sessile benthos extending up to ~50cm in height. The extensive areas of soft substrate commonly exhibited low-relief benthos which often covered less than 5% of the surface area. Such areas were also frequently noted for pockmark fields and the general uniformity of the environment.

Simple

Identification info

Date (Publication)
2006-01-01T00:00:00
Citation identifier
Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/64003

Cited responsible party
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Publisher

Geoscience Australia

 Canberra
Author

Logan, G.A.

 1
Author

Rollet, N.

 2
Author

Glenn, K.

 3
Author

Grosjean, E.

 4
Author

Ryan, G.J.

 5
Author

Shipboard Party

 6
Name

Record

Issue identification

2006/019

Point of contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Custodian

ED
Owner

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Custodian

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

 Voice
Topic category
  • Geoscientific information
Maintenance and update frequency
Unknown

Resource format

Title

Product data repository: Various Formats

Website

Data Store directory containing the digital product files

Data Store directory containing one or more files, possibly in a variety of formats, accessible to Geoscience Australia staff only for internal purposes

Keywords

  • GA Publication

  • Record

Theme

  • petroleum geology

Theme

  • environmental

Theme

  • geochemistry

Theme

  • marine survey

Theme

  • natural gas

Theme

  • marine

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

  • Earth Sciences

Keywords

  • Published_External

Resource constraints

Title

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

Alternate title

CC-BY

Edition

4.0

Website

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

Access constraints
License
Use constraints
License

Resource constraints

Title

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

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

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

Classification
Unclassified
Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Distribution Information

Distributor contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Distributor

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

 Voice
OnLine resource

Download the record (pdf)

Download the record (pdf)

Distribution format

  • pdf

Resource lineage

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Unknown

Hierarchy level
Non geographic dataset
Other

GA Publication

Description

Source data not available.

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-cee8-7506-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Title

GeoNetwork UUID

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

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

 Voice

Type of resource

Resource scope
Document
Name

GA Record

Alternative metadata reference

Title

Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with

uuid

Citation identifier
eCatId/64003

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/a05f7892-cee8-7506-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Date info (Revision)
2018-04-22T08:53:01
Date info (Creation)
2006-01-24T00:00:00

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

 
 

Keywords

environmental geochemistry marine marine survey natural gas petroleum geology

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