Media
Release
July 14, 2013
German-Australian collaboration maps the Coral Sea
An underwater cliff recently discovered in the Coral Sea will help shed light on the ancient
past, and could also prove to be a hotspot of marine life diversity.
The steep, 800-metre cliff is on the western edge of the Queensland Plateau, to the
northeast of Cooktown.
It was found during a collaborative expedition by German marine scientists and
Australian researchers from James Cook University and the University of Sydney.
During June and July, working on one of Germany’s largest research vessels, the RV
Sonne, scientists have been mapping the seafloor of the northern Coral Sea – from Papua
New Guinea, south along the deep Great Barrier Reef to Townsville, and then east into
New Caledonian waters.
“Using a deep-water, multibeam swath echosounder, we were able to detect a steep cliff in
an area where we would usually expect to find a gradually sloping seafloor,” said Dr
Robin Beaman, from JCU’s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences.
“The top of the undersea cliff lies in about 1800 metres of water and drops nearly
vertically into the Queensland Trough at 2600 metres.”
The cliff could record the layers of coral growth that formed on the Queensland Plateau
before subsiding to its present depth over the past several million years.
“Elsewhere in the world, such steep cliffs are also the habitats for prolific marine life, so
this discovery will be used to plan a future expedition to sample the seafloor,” Dr Beaman
said.
The RV Sonne also obtained sediment cores from submarine canyons lying in the deep
Great Barrier Reef to the east of Cairns.
These canyons line the edge of northeastern Australia’s continental margin and are known
to be the conduits of sediment draining off the reef into the Queensland Trough.
“We targeted one canyon in particular because it was connected to an ancient river
channel on the Great Barrier Reef shelf,” said Dr Jody Webster, from the School of
Geosciences at the University of Sydney.
Linden Woodward, Media Liaison, JCU. Tel 07 4042 1007; Mobile 04 1979 1564
linden.woodward@jcu.edu.au Releases are available on JCU’s website: www.jcu.edu.au
“During times of lower sea-levels, such as during the last ice age about 20,000 years ago,
these rivers would have drained at a coastline much further east than now, and likely
dumped river sediments directly into connecting canyons.
>P2
Collaboration maps Coral Sea contd. P2/2
“The sediments recovered from this canyon, and another canyon nearby, will help us to
understand the environmental responses of the Great Barrier Reef during changing sealevels, and the role of submarine canyons in recording those responses,” said Dr Webster.
“Examining sediment cores is much like looking at tree rings to understand the changes to
the environment during the life of a tree – they will reveal both the type and timing of
sediment deposited from the Great Barrier Reef.
“Analysing these sediments will reveal a great deal about the effects of climate change on
the reef,” Dr Webster said.
These new canyon cores and seafloor maps (covering 13,800 square kilometres to date)
will contribute to ongoing marine research being conducted on the deep Great Barrier
Reef and Coral Sea by JCU and the University of Sydney.
“The data from this collaborative expedition are timely, given the area’s recent inclusion in
the Coral Sea Commonwealth Marine Reserve,” Dr Beaman said. “It shows there is still
much to discover about the deep environments of the Coral Sea.”
Information for media:
Dr Jody Webster (University of Sydney) is available for interviews from 9.00am on Monday
15 July 2013
Tel 02 90366538 or 0412 177 405
Dr Robin Beaman (James Cook University, Cairns) is available for interviews from 9.00am
on Monday 15 July 2013
Tel 07 4042 1693 or 0438 623 145
Images available, with image credit for Dr Robin Beaman, James Cook University
To download a full-colour, high-res image of the Coral Sea cliff site:
http://www.deepreef.org/images/stories/blog/coralsea_cliff.jpg
To download a full-colour, high-res image of the canyons site east of Cairns:
http://www.deepreef.org/images/stories/blog/gbr_canyons.jpg
To download suggested captions and image licence details:
Linden Woodward, Media Liaison, JCU. Tel 07 4042 1007; Mobile 04 1979 1564
linden.woodward@jcu.edu.au Releases are available on JCU’s website: www.jcu.edu.au
http://www.deepreef.org/images/stories/blog/Sonne_image_caption_licence.txt
Linden Woodward, Media Liaison, JCU. Tel 07 4042 1007; Mobile 04 1979 1564
linden.woodward@jcu.edu.au Releases are available on JCU’s website: www.jcu.edu.au