From Geoscience Australia
JSON format icon JSON RDF format icon RDF ISO19115-3 XML

What goes up must come down: Why is Australia sinking?

Created 17/10/2025

Updated 17/10/2025

JSON format icon JSON RDF format icon RDF ISO19115-3 XML

Motion of the Australian continent has been well studied in the horizontal direction, but there are minimal studies considering the vertical motion. Recent measurements using the Global Positioning System (GPS) suggest that the Australian continent is sinking, but current understanding of geophysical processes suggests that the expected vertical motion of the plate should be close to zero or uplifting. Understanding how the surface of the earth changes has many important applications like the response of the earth system to climate and sea level change and resource availability. This presentation will explore how the Australian plate is moving and what that means for applications of precise positioning.

Files and APIs

Tags

Additional Info

Field Value
Title What goes up must come down: Why is Australia sinking?
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/af38489e-b659-4ac7-89c3-e2dbf67b3f51
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 08/04/2019
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
    [
      [
        112.0,
        -44.0
      ],
      [
        154.0,
        -44.0
      ],
      [
        154.0,
        -9.0
      ],
      [
        112.0,
        -9.0
      ],
      [
        112.0,
        -44.0
      ]
    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "What goes up must come down: Why is Australia sinking?". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/what-goes-up-must-come-down-why-is-australia-sinking