Black Marks on Boot – Locating Shipwreck Sites With Satellite Imagery

Author(s): Irini A Malliaros

Year: 2020

Summary

This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Satellite imagery has changed the approach to the search for shipwrecks in maritime archaeology. The Geographic Information Systems (GIS) work undertaken by archaeologists, following the Silentworld Foundation and Australian National Maritime Museum collaborative expedition in 2017 to Kenn Reefs in the Coral Sea, revealed that shipwreck sites and their effect on coral reefs could be seen on appropriate satellite imagery as dark discolourations.

This predictive modelling was applied to the next scheduled expedition, which took place in December 2018. Satellite imagery of Boot Reef in the Torres Strait, was obtained and analysed for the same dark discolouration prior to commencement of the fieldwork. This produced a list of locations to be prioritised for investigation by magnetometer and snorkel teams. This paper outlines the results of the fieldwork and discusses the effectiveness of this application.

Cite this Record

Black Marks on Boot – Locating Shipwreck Sites With Satellite Imagery. Irini A Malliaros. 2020 ( tDAR id: 457427)

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Keywords

Geographic Keywords
AUSTRALIA

Spatial Coverage

min long: 112.952; min lat: -43.648 ; max long: 153.606; max lat: -10.71 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 751