Harmonising and mapping Patagonian Shelf seabed sediment data

Abstract. Maps of seabed sediment distribution on global continental shelves are useful for a wide range of applications, including for habitat mapping, predicting sedimentary carbon stocks, and providing insight into past and present oceanographic conditions and the processes influencing sediment transport and deposition. Whilst some continental shelves have relatively well mapped seabed sediments, others lack publicly available, harmonised datasets. The Patagonian Shelf, also known as the Argentine Shelf, is one of the world’s largest continental shelves, but there is currently no database that has compiled publicly available seabed sediment data. In this paper we collate and harmonise existing published and open-access seabed grain size data for the Patagonian Shelf. The paper combines both quantitative and qualitative data from published and grey literature and translates these data into two modified Folk sediment classification schemes. Ordinary Kriging is used to map the spatial distribution of different sediment classes across the shelf and allows us to assess uncertainty in the predictions of seabed sediment type. Overall, our sediment maps agree well with previously published maps over the central and northern shelf. Key differences are the classification of shell-rich sediments, and the spatial distribution of coarse sediments, particularly over the southern shelf. The latter would be further resolved with greater sampling of seabed sediments in the region. The data products produced for this study are grain size point data for the shelf and interpolated Geographic Information System (GIS) layers of seabed sediments and associated prediction errors. These are freely available for download via Zenodo (Roseby et al., 2026; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19111158).