Late Quaternary hydrological changes in the Gulf of Carpentaria

Abstract

The Gulf of Carpentaria is a shallow epicontinental sea between Australia and Papua New Guinea (Fig. 1); it has a maximum depth of −69 m and is connected to the Arafura Sea across a −53-m sill¹; in the east, the connection to the Coral Sea through Torres Straits is −12 m (ref. 1). We propose here that low sea levels during the Pleistocene^2,3 (Fig. 2) resulted in subaerial exposure of the Gulf of Carpentaria, thereby reducing the regional input of moisture and latent heat to the atmosphere and tropical cyclogenesis. As a result, the climate of the Carpentaria Basin may have been significantly drier than at present^4,5. Even so, previous workers^6,7 have reported the presence of lacustrine sediments in the Gulf that could have been deposited when the sea level dropped below the −53-m contour¹. During 1982, the extent of Lake Carpentaria was defined by high-resolution seismic profiles and cores. The size and development of Lake Carpentaria and its dependence on the hydrological balance are discussed below.