From Geoscience Australia
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Mapping the ocean floor

Created 17/10/2025

Updated 17/10/2025

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Have you ever wondered how we know the depth of the ocean? Sonar is the main technology used investigate the location of submarine canyons, seamounts, abyssal plains and if the seafloor is sand or rock. This activity builds understanding of sonar technique and applications through a) processing and plotting provided data to discover a seafloor feature or shipwreck, and b) bouncing balls on different surfaces and analysing rebound, relating this to ground hardness then extend understanding to ‘backscatter’ in bathymetry surveys. It is suitable for middle secondary students, but could be extended for senior students of Earth science, marine science/oceanography, and physics.

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Additional Info

Field Value
Title Mapping the ocean floor
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/en/dataset/98af1690-dab3-4531-af29-b25444ececb8
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period
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 "Mapping the ocean floor". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/mapping-the-ocean-floor