Imagery courtesy of the Schmidt Ocean Institute

Exploration & Discovery of Australia’s Oceans

Deepreef Explorer is the website for Dr Robin Beaman and the scientists working to reveal the underwater landscape and seabed habitats of Australia’s regional seas, from the warm tropical Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea, to the icy polar waters of Antarctica.

Projects

Showcases the latest ocean mapping research and discoveries.

Halimeda bioherms on the Great Barrier Reef

Halimeda bioherms on the Great Barrier Reef

The calcareous green alga Halimeda is a major contributor to inter-reef carbonate sediments and is found along the northern Great Barrier Reef shelf as extensive build-ups of sediment, called bioherms. Halimeda algae meadow (credit Emma Kennedy)These Halimeda bioherms...

Crowdsourced bathymetry on the Great Barrier Reef

Crowdsourced bathymetry on the Great Barrier Reef

Crowdsourced bathymetry is the collection of depth measurements from vessels using standard navigation instruments. Many vessels on the Great Barrier Reef - from dive boats to fishing boats - use some type of echo sounder to measure the depth of water. Combined with...

Submarine canyons of north-eastern Australia

Submarine canyons of north-eastern Australia

Submarine canyons are among the largest undersea landscape features on Earth, and act as pathways for most of the terrigenous and carbonate sediment transported from the continents to the deep-sea. Canyons are typically associated with large submarine fans and gravity...

Rob’s Blog

Recent ocean mapping events within Australia’s marine region.

New species of black corals in the GBR

New species of black corals in the GBR

Congratulations to Jeremy Horowitz on discovering new species of black corals, including naming one coral Antipathes falkorae in recognition of the Schmidt Ocean Institute's RV Falkor. Read "Scientists discover five new species of black corals living thousands of feet...

SOI awarded Hydrographic Excellence Award for 2021

SOI awarded Hydrographic Excellence Award for 2021

Congratulations to the Schmidt Ocean Institute for being awarded the SSSI Hydrography Commission's 2021 Hydrographic Excellence Team Award, in recognition for the 2020-21 RV Falkor Australia campaign. The Hydrographic Excellence award recognises those individuals or...

Mapping Cocos (Keeling) Islands Marine Park

Mapping Cocos (Keeling) Islands Marine Park

The team onboard RV Investigator reveal the first detailed map of the seafloor in the idyllic Cocos (Keeling) Islands Marine Park. Read the full story “Revealing the world beneath the waves of a tropical marine park”, published by CSIRO on 28 October 2022.RV...

Bathymetry

To view and download seafloor depth data in a range of media formats.

Bass Strait bathymetry

Bass Strait bathymetry

This dataset provides the new high-resolution bathymetry model for the Bass Strait, called the bs100 grid. The ~100 metre-resolution gridded bathymetry dataset covers an area of about 334,000 km2, from King Island in the west of Bass Strait to Flinders Island in the...

Northern Australia bathymetry

Northern Australia bathymetry

This dataset provides the new high-resolution bathymetry model for the Northern Australia, called the nthaus100 grid. The ~100 metre-resolution gridded bathymetry dataset covers an area of about 1,442,000 km, from Broome in Western Australia to Arnhem Land in the...

Kerguelen Plateau bathymetry

Kerguelen Plateau bathymetry

This dataset provides the high-resolution bathymetry model for the Kerguelen Plateau and south-west Indian Ocean, called kerg_dem (short for Kergulen digital elevation model). The ~100 metre-resolution gridded bathymetry dataset covers an area of about 736,000 km2,...

Publications

For a range of published literature, including in-depth scientific articles, reports and conference papers

Peer-reviewed Literature

Conference Papers

Book Sections

Reports

Magazine Articles

Dr Robin Beaman

Marine geologist and ocean mapping scientist revealing the underwater landscape.

Gallery

View and download images and maps from our various projects and expeditions.

Technology

Learn about the variety of tools used to study the ocean floor and water.

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