GEBCO bathymetric data sets — GEBCO 30 arc-second grid

Bathymetry data for the Northeast Atlantic from the GEBCO_08 Grid ©

The GEBCO Grid gives global coverage of gridded bathymetry data at 30 arc-second intervals.

The grid was largely generated by combining quality-controlled ship depth soundings with interpolation between sounding points guided by satellite-gravity derived data. In areas where they improve on this model, data sets generated by other methods are included. The land data are largely taken from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM30) data set.

Before release, numerous checks were carried out on the grid, however, it may still contain some artifacts created during the gridding process. A list of reported bugs will be included on this page.

If you find any bugs in the data set that are not reported on this page then please contact Pauline Weatherall the GEBCO Digital Atlas manager.

For ease, the reported problems have been divided into the following areas

North Atlantic | South Atlantic | North Pacific | South Pacific | Indian Ocean

Southern Ocean | Mediterranean Sea | Other areas

North Atlantic
Specific area	Problem(s) reported	Comment
North Sea	Reported in version 20090202 (GEBCO_08) — A 'grid pattern' is visible in the gridded data set in the southern part of the North Sea. This is an artifact created during the gridding process. View imagery to illustrate this artifact (246 KB)	This bug has been fixed in version 20141103 of the grid (GEBCO_2014), released in December 2014.
North Sea	Reported in version 20091120 (GEBCO_08) — A line of discontinuity is visible in the grid along 0°E in parts of the North Sea. This is the result of a mis-match at this boundary between input data sets used to generate the GEBCO_08 Grid. View imagery to illustrate this artifact (212 KB)	This bug has been fixed in version 20141103 of the grid (GEBCO_2014), released in December 2014.
Irish Sea	Reported in version 20091120 (GEBCO_08) — Anomalous deeps have been reported in the grid for some coastal regions in the Irish Sea area, i.e. the Solway Firth, Morecambe Bay, Dee Estuary, the Mersey Estuary and the approaches to Anglesey. View imagery to illustrate this artifact (176 KB)	The area of the reported bug has been improved in version 20141103 of the grid (GEBCO_2014), released in December 2014.
Region off Dakar	Reported in version 20091120 (GEBCO_08) — Anomalous deep regions (between 150m and 200m) have been reported in the shallower water areas off Dakar (14° 42'N, 17° 24'W). These artifacts have been created during the gridding process due to a lack of source sounding data in shallower water regions. View imagery to illustrate this artifact (227 KB)	This bug has been fixed in version 20141103 of the grid (GEBCO_2014), released in December 2014.
Continental shelf north of the Bay of Biscay	Reported in version 20091120 (GEBCO_08) — There are anomalous peaks and troughs shown in the GEBCO_08 Grid in the shallower water areas of the continental shelf north of the Bay of Biscay. These artifacts have been created during the gridding process due to a lack of source sounding data in shallower water regions. View imagery to illustrate this artifact (350 KB)	The area of the reported bug has been improved in version 20141103 of the grid (GEBCO_2014), released in December 2014.
Bay of Seine	Reported in version 20091120 (GEBCO_08) — Anomalous deeps have been reported in the grid for some coastal regions of the Bay of Seine (48° 45’N, 1° 49’W). These artifacts have been created during the gridding process due to a lack of source sounding data in shallower water regions. View imagery to illustrate this artifact (159 KB)	The area of the reported bug has been improved in version 20141103 of the grid (GEBCO_2014), released in December 2014.
Region off Vigo	Present in version 20100927 (GEBCO_08) and earlier versions — Anomalous ‘trench-like’ feature shown in the GEBCO_08 Grid in the region off the coast of Vigo, Spain (42°N, 9° 30’W). This is an artifact created during the generation of the grid, caused by anomalous soundings along a ship track. View imagery to illustrate this artifact (279 KB)	This bug has been fixed in version 20141103 of the grid (GEBCO_2014), released in December 2014.
Waters around the Bahamas	Present in version 20100927 (GEBCO_08) and earlier versions — Anomalous deeps have been reported in the shallow water regions off the Bahamas (25°N, 76°W). These artifacts have been created during the gridding process due to a lack of source sounding data in shallower water regions.	View imagery to illustrate this artifact (229 KB)
North Atlantic Ocean near the Faroe Islands	Present in version 20100927 (GEBCO_08) and earlier versions — Anomalous shallow water areas have been reported near Faroe Bank (60° 49'N, 9° 21'W). These artifacts have been created during the gridding process. View imagery to illustrate this artifact (348 KB)	This bug has been fixed in version 20141103 of the grid (GEBCO_2014), released in December 2014.
North Atlantic Ocean	In version 20150318 (GEBCO_2014) and present in earlier versions an anomalously shallow feature has been reported in the region 4° 35' 49''W; 0° 34' 51''N.
South Atlantic
Specific area	Problem(s) reported	Comment
Southeast Atlantic Ocean	In version 20150318 (GEBCO_2014) and present in earlier versions an anomalously shallow feature has been reported in the region 3° 10' 48''E; 5° 44' 19''S. In this area the grid is based on interpolation.
North Pacific
Specific area	Problem(s) reported	Comment
No problems reported
South Pacific
Specific area	Problem(s) reported	Comment
Coral Sea	Reported in version 20100927 (GEBCO_08) — Anomalous deep regions reported in the Moreton Bay area off Brisbane, Australia ( 27.14°S, 153.3°E). These are artifacts created during the generation of the grid, caused by anomalous soundings in a source survey data set. View imagery to illustrate this artifact (263 KB)	This bug has been fixed in version 20141103 of the grid (GEBCO_2014), released in December 2014.
Coral Sea	Reported in version 20100927 (GEBCO_08) and present in earlier versions — A scientific research cruise between Australia and New Caledonia has reported that Sandy Island (19° 14'S, 159° 57'E) does not exist. This feature has been included in GEBCO's grid via coastline and topography data sets. Find out more about this feature's inclusion in the GEBCO_08 Grid (104 KB)	This bug has been fixed in version 20141103 of the grid (GEBCO_2014), released in December 2014.
Southwest Pacific Ocean	Reported in version 20100927 (GEBCO_08) and present in earlier versions — north of the island of New Guinea (1° 59’S, 141° 30’E) there is a line of cells in the GEBCO_08 grid erroneously labelled as land data (between and 141° 59’ 31’’E, 141° 0’ 25’E ). View imagery to illustrate this artifact. (357 KB)	This bug has been fixed in version 20141103 of the grid (GEBCO_2014), released in December 2014.
Southwest Pacific Ocean	Reported in version 20100927 (GEBCO_08) and present in earlier versions — east of Norfolk Island (29° 2'S, 167° 56'E) an extra area of land is present in the GEBCO_08 Grid.	This bug has been fixed in version 20141103 of the grid (GEBCO_2014), released in December 2014.
Indian Ocean
Specific area	Problem(s) reported	Comment
Persian Gulf - Gulf of Bahrain	Reported in version 20150318 (GEBCO_2014) and present in earlier versions — there are anomalous deep regions near to the coast at 25°N, 50.694°E. These artifacts have been created during the gridding process due to a lack of source sounding data in shallower water regions. Therefore the grid cells in this area have interpolated depth values. View imagery to illustrate this artifact. (271 KB)
Southern Ocean
Specific area	Problem(s) reported	Comment
Southern Ocean	Reported in version 20141103 (GEBCO_2014). In the region south of 60°S the GEBCO_2014 Grid is based on v1 of the International Bathymetric Chart of the Southern Ocean (IBCSO). There is a 500m (approximate) shift in latitude northwards of the data in the GEBCO_2014 Grid compared to the source IBCSO grid in the region south of 60°S. This error appears to have occurred during the process to include the IBCSO grid into GEBCO.	This bug has been fixed in version 20150318 of the grid (GEBCO_2014), released in March 2015.
Mediterranean Sea
Specific area	Problem(s) reported	Comment
No problems reported
Other areas
Specific area	Problem(s) reported	Comment
Mekong Delta region of Vietnam	There are cell values in the GEBCO_2014 Grid on land that have been labelled with a value of '-1'. (210 KB)	This bug has been reported in version 20150318 of the grid (GEBCO_2014).

Resources

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GEBCO bathymetric data sets — GEBCO 30 arc-second grid