Geoscience Australia carried out a marine survey on Carnarvon shelf (WA) in 2008 (SOL4769) to map seabed bathymetry and characterise benthic environments through colocated sampling of surface sediments and infauna, observation of benthic habitats using underwater towed video and stills photography, and measurement of ocean tides and wavegenerated currents. Data and samples were acquired using the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) Research Vessel Solander. Bathymetric mapping, sampling and video transects were completed in three survey areas that extended seaward from Ningaloo Reef to the shelf edge, including: Mandu Creek (80 sq km); Point Cloates (281 sq km), and; Gnaraloo (321 sq km). Additional bathymetric mapping (but no sampling or video) was completed between Mandu creek and Point Cloates, covering 277 sq km and north of Mandu Creek, covering 79 sq km. Two oceanographic moorings were deployed in the Point Cloates survey area. The survey also mapped and sampled an area to the northeast of the Muiron Islands covering 52 sq km. cloates_3m is an ArcINFO grid of Point Cloates of Carnarvon Shelf survey area produced from the processed EM3002 bathymetry data using the CARIS HIPS and SIPS software

<div>The Abbot Point to Hydrographers Passage bathymetry survey was acquired for the Australian Hydrographic Office (AHO) onboard the RV Escape during the period 6 Oct 2020 – 16 Mar 2021. This was a contracted survey conducted for the Australian Hydrographic Office by iXblue Pty Ltd as part of the Hydroscheme Industry Partnership Program. The survey area encompases a section of Two-Way Route from Abbot Point through Hydrographers Passage QLD. Bathymetry data was acquired using a Kongsberg EM 2040, and processed using QPS QINSy. The dataset was then exported as a 30m resolution, 32 bit floating point GeoTIFF grid of the survey area.</div><div>This dataset is not to be used for navigational purposes.</div>

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.

The impacts of climate change on sea level rise (SLR) will adversely affect infrastructure in a significant number of Australian coastal communities. A first-pass national assessment has identified the extent and value of infrastructure potentially exposed to impacts from future climate by utilizing a number of fundamental national scale datasets. A mid-resolution digital elevation model was used to model a series of SLR projections incorporating 100 year return-period storm-tide estimates where available (maximum tidal range otherwise). The modeled inundation zones were overlaid with a national coastal geomorphology dataset, titled the Smartline, which identified coastal landforms that are potentially unstable under the influence of rising sea level. These datasets were then overlain with Geoscience Australia's National Exposure Information System (NEXIS) to quantify the number and value of infrastructure elements (including residential and commercial buildings, roads and rail) potentially vulnerable to a range of sea-level rise and coastal recession estimates for the year 2100. In addition, we examined the changes in exposure under a range of future Australian Bureau of Statistics population scenarios. We found that over 270,000 residential buildings are potentially vulnerable to the combined impacts of inundation and recession by 2100 (replacement value of approximately $A72 billion). Nearly 250,000 residential buildings were found to be potentially vulnerable to inundation only ($A64 billion). Queensland and New South Wales have the largest vulnerability considering both value of infrastructure and the number of buildings affected. Nationally, approximately 33,000 km of road and 1,500 km of rail infrastructure are potentially at risk by 2100.

Legacy product - no abstract available

Spatially continuous data of environmental variables is often required for marine conservation and management. However, information for environmental variables is usually collected by point sampling, particularly for the deep ocean. Thus, methods generating such spatially continuous data by using point samples to estimate values for unknown locations become essential tools. Such methods are, however, often data- or even variable- specific and it is difficult to select an appropriate method for any given dataset. In this study, 14 methods (37 sub-methods) are compared using samples of mud content with five levels of sample density across the southwest Australian margin. Bathymetry, distance to coast, and slope were used as secondary variables. Ten-fold cross validation with relative mean absolute error (RMAE) and visual examination were used to assess the performance of these methods. A total of 1,850 prediction datasets were produced and used to assess the performance of the methods. Considering both the accuracy and the visual examination, we found that a combined method, random forest and ordinary kriging (RKrf), is the most robust method. No threshold in sample density was detected in relation to prediction accuracy. No consistent patterns were observed between the performance of the methods and data variation. The RMAE of three most accurate methods is about 30% lower than that of the best methods in previous publications, highlighting the robustness of the methods selected in this study. The limitations of this study were discussed and a number of suggestions were provided for further studies.

Legacy product - no abstract available

This map shows the area of the Commonwealth Scalefish Hook Sector Gulper Shark Closure - Southern Dogfish. Modified from GeoCat 65110 (2007) as per the Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery (Closures) Direction No. 1 2009 - Schedule 16. Produced for the Australian Fisheries Management Authority. Not for public sale or distribution by GA.

After CO2 is injected into the saline aquifer, the formation water inside the porous media becomes more acidic. This will significantly affect the original chemical equilibrium underground, and induce or speed up various processes of dissolution and precipitation depending on the reservoir pressure, temperature and salinity of formation water. The Early Cretaceous Gage Sandstone has been identified as a potential reservoir unit suitable for large-scale CO2 storage in the offshore southern Perth Basin. This study assesses the contribution of mineralisation trapping to CO2 storage capacity of the Gage Sandstone through a comprehensive geochemical modelling.

The Australian Government formally releases new offshore exploration areas at the annual APPEA conference. These areas are located across various offshore hydrocarbon provinces ranging from mature basins with ongoing oil and gas production to exploration frontiers. In support of the annual acreage release, Geoscience Australia (GA) provides a variety of technical information with an emphasis on basin evolution, stratigraphic frameworks and overviews of hydrocarbon prospectivity. In recent years, GA's petroleum geological studies have significantly high graded the prospectivity of large underexplored offshore regions such as the Ceduna Sub-basin and the Northern Perth Basin. A new program is now targeting areas that lie adjacent to producing regions with the aim to delineate the occurrence and distribution of petroleum systems elements in less explored or in unsuccessful areas and to provide a comprehensive overview of the regional geological evolution. Updates to the stratigraphic framework and new results from geochemical studies are already available and are used for prospectivity assessments. Furthermore, the Australian government continues to assist offshore exploration activities by providing free access to a wealth of geological and geophysical data.