Australian Seabed Sediments Collection

This dataset contains point data describing physical properties of marine sediments as held within the Geoscience Australia Marine Sediment database (MARS) for samples acquired by marine surveys that occurred between 1905 and 2017. Samples were collected from within the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone, plus waters within Australian Antarctic Territory, waters around Christmas Island (Indian Ocean) and outside the EEZ within the Timor Sea and waters around Papua New Guinea. Samples are sourced from a range of organisations, with sampling technique, spatial accuracy and sample preservation varying between surveys. Attributes include survey ID and name, sample ID, sampling method, water depth and location information. Sediment properties include %mud, %sand, %gravel, mean grain size and texture (classified using the Folk (1954) nomenclature for sediments). There is no consistent datum and projection due to the time span, differing collecting organisations and method of measurement across the dataset. All data is referenced to WGS 84 unless stated otherwise.