Australian Geological Provinces Database

Note: This metadata describes the dataset in accordance with the ANZLIC (Australia New Zealand Land Information Council) Core Metadata Guidelines Version 2.

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Dataset citation

ANZLIC unique identifier: ANZCW0703006162

Title: Australian Geological Provinces Database

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Custodian

Custodian: Geoscience Australia

Jurisdiction: Australia

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The Australian Geological Provinces Database contains descriptions and polygon outlines of geological provinces of the Australian continent and surrounding marine jurisdictional area. The provinces are mapped at a nominal 1:1 million scale.

The database can be interactively queried, and the results retrieved as reports and maps. Attributes include igneous, sedimentary and structural characteristics, age limits, parent and constituent units, relations to surrounding provinces, and mineral and petroleum resources.

The website URL is http://www.ga.gov.au/oracle/provinces/

ANZLIC search words:

ENERGY Petroleum Exploration
GEOSCIENCES Research
GEOSCIENCES Resources
GEOSCIENCES Geology Exploration
GEOSCIENCES Geology Maps
MINERALS

Spatial domain:

locality map

Geographic extent name: AUSTRALIA INCLUDING EXTERNAL TERRITORIES - AUSAAT - Australia - Australia

Geographic extent polygon: 109 -5, 179 -5, 179 -55, 109 -55, 109 -5,

Note: The format for each Geographic extent name is: Name - Identifier - Category - Jurisdiction (as appropriate) See GEN Register

Geographic bounding box:: North bounding latitude: -5 °; South bounding latitude: -55 °; East bounding longitude: 179 °; West bounding longitude: 109 °

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Data currency

Beginning date: 2001-11-01

Ending date: Not Known

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Dataset status

Progress: In Progress

Maintenance and update frequency: Not Known

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Access

Stored data format:: DIGITAL - RDBMS ORACLE database ORACLE Geographic GDA94

Available format type:: DIGITAL - html Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML); DIGITAL - ascii ASCII text

Access constraints:

Users can access the Australian Geological Provinces Database via the internet at http://www.ga.gov.au/oracle/provinces/ where province descriptions and polygons can be viewed in an online GIS and database query website. Province descriptions can be downloaded in text and HTML format.

Order Product

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Data quality

Lineage:

The Australian Geological Provinces database is under continual development by database administrators in line with scientific requirements. A-spatial data is managed in ORACLE and updated via ORACLE forms. Spatial data is managed via ESRI's Spatial Data Engine. Spatial and a-spatial data are then linked together for client access.

Province descriptions are compiled by geologists with reference to existing literature, and undergo quality control checking for completeness and accuracy before being made available on the database website. As more recent or different descriptions of provinces are compiled, older province descriptions will be retired from the publicly available database.

Province polygon outlines are compiled in geographic coordinates and GDA94 datum from geological maps at a nominal scale of 1:1 million.

Positional accuracy:

Geological province polygon outlines stored in the database have been generated at a nominal scale of 1:1 000 000. Although some data were captured at more a detailed scale, these have been simplified for consistency. The data are regarded as accurate for use at 1:1 000 000 scale.

Attribute accuracy:

Descriptive attributes for geological provinces are based on geoscientific information in published maps, reports and research papers. As some information is the result of highly detailed research while other is taken from historical sources, some provinces will have considerably more detailed attribute information than others.

Logical Consistency:

Both spatial and a-spatial data undergo rigorous scientific and technical quality control. Geoscientists perform quality control to make sure a-spatial data are accurate and consistent with current scientific information. A two step quality control procedure is performed on spatial data.

(1) Geoscientists visually inspect spatial data for consistency with current scientific information.

(2)Technical staff then test these data for data completeness, correct spatial representation, logical consistency and correctness using ESRI ArcGIS and ArcInfo software.

Completeness:

The database is continually being populated with data and will expand in extent across Australia's onshore and offshore jurisdictional area. As at January 2004, the database houses only sedimentary and igneous provinces of eastern Australia and offshore areas.

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