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    • Total Sediment Thickness of the World's Oceans & Marginal Seas, Version 2

    Metadata Updated: June 28, 2025

    NGDC's global ocean sediment thickness grid (Divins, 2003) has been updated for the Australian-Antarctic region (60° -155° E, 30° -70° S). New seismic reflection and refraction data have been used to add detail to the conjugate Australian and Antarctic margins and intervening ocean floor where previously regional sediment thickness patterns were poorly known. On the margins, sediment thickness estimates were computed from velocity-depth functions from sonobuoy/refraction velocity solutions ground-truthed against seismic reflection data. For the Southeast Indian Ridge abyssal plain, sediment thickness contours from Géli et al. (2007) were used. The new regional sediment thickness grid was combined with NGDC's original ocean sediment thickness grid (Divins, 2003) to create an updated global grid of ocean sediment thickness. Even using the minimum estimates, sediment accumulations on the extended Australian and Antarctic continental margins are 2 km thicker across large regions and up to 9 km thicker in the Ceduna Basin compared to NGDC's original sediment thickness grid (Divins, 2003), which has been deprecated but is still available.

    Access & Use Information

    License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

    Downloads & Resources

    Dates

    Metadata Date June 24, 2025
    Metadata Created Date October 18, 2024
    Metadata Updated Date June 28, 2025
    Reference Date(s) May 20, 2013 (publication)
    Frequency Of Update asNeeded

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from NGDC MGG Geophysics

    Other Data Resources

    Graphic Preview

    Image of total sediment thickness of the world's oceans and marginal seas, Version 2

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Date June 24, 2025
    Metadata Created Date October 18, 2024
    Metadata Updated Date June 28, 2025
    Reference Date(s) May 20, 2013 (publication)
    Responsible Party Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania (Point of Contact)
    Contact Email
    Guid gov.noaa.ngdc.mgg.geophysics:G01065_v2
    Access Constraints Distribution liability: NOAA and NCEI make no warranty, expressed or implied, regarding these data, nor does the fact of distribution constitute such a warranty. NOAA and NCEI cannot assume liability for any damages caused by any errors or omissions in these data. If appropriate, NCEI can only certify that the data it distributes are an authentic copy of the records that were accepted for inclusion in the NCEI archives., Use Constraints: None, Access Constraints: None
    Bbox East Long 360
    Bbox North Lat 80.0000
    Bbox South Lat -70.0000
    Bbox West Long 0.00
    Coupled Resource
    Frequency Of Update asNeeded
    Graphic Preview Description Image of total sediment thickness of the world's oceans and marginal seas, Version 2
    Graphic Preview File https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/sedthickv2.png
    Graphic Preview Type png
    Harvest Object Id e2993566-b825-4892-875e-90df383bffb4
    Harvest Source Id 80dfcf5d-5e08-457e-83e4-cfc696e378bc
    Harvest Source Title NGDC MGG Geophysics
    Licence
    Lineage
    Metadata Language eng; USA
    Metadata Type geospatial
    Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[0.0, -70.0], [360.0, -70.0], [360.0, 80.0], [0.0, 80.0], [0.0, -70.0]]]}
    Progress
    Spatial Data Service Type
    Spatial Reference System
    Spatial Harvester True
    Temporal Extent Begin 2003-12-31
    Temporal Extent End 2013-05-20

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