Bathymetric Profiling of the Antarctic Continental Margin

Brief description

Metadata record for data from ASAC Project 933 See the link below for public details on this project. Australian Antarctic and Southern Ocean Profiling Project (AASOPP) was the outcome of a government decision in 1999 that it would carry out the necessary work to place Australia in a position to be able to prepare a submission defining the outer limit the 'extended Continental Shelf' (ECS) off the Australian Antarctic Territory (AAT). The ECS is the area of seabed/subsoil jurisdiction extending beyond the 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone, and is defined by Article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. AASOPP was set up in 2000, under the management of the Department of Finance and Administration and in consultation with the Australian Antarctic Division, to undertake the acquisition and interpretation of the data that would underpin a UN submission. Technical aspects of the work were largely the responsibility of the Australian Geological Survey Organisation and the Australian Surveying and Land Information Group (later Geoscience Australia). Marine geophysical surveys were conducted in 2001/2 and 2002/3 by the primary contractors, FUGRO Geoteam supervised by AGSO (Geoscience Australia) using the vessels Geoarctic and Polar Duke (survey numbers GA227, GA228 and GA229). Data collected were seismic reflection, sonobuoy seismic refraction, magnetic and gravity profiles. Data processing was supervised by Geoscience Australia where they are archived. Seismic data were lodged with the SCAR Seismic Data Library. Law of the Sea interpretations were lodged as part of the Australian submission to the United Nations by November, 2004 with a request not to examine the Antarctic case until requested.