A new radiometric map of the continent of Australia 1:5,000,000 th was produced by Geoscience Australia, the office of mining and geological studies of the Australian Federal Government.

Geoscience Australia and state geological offices and the Northern Territory conducted radiometric surveys during the last forty years to map the concentrations of potassium, uranium and thorium from the surface of the continent. However, these data are hardly comparable to the regional and continental scale because they were acquired and processed using specifications, technologies and procedures.

To standardize the data, an ambitious airborne geophysical survey covering the whole of Australia was completed in 2007. The new radiometric data were used to adjust to a common standard, all data previously acquired. The national map was produced by merging the corrected grids.

The acquisition of the data of spectrometry of gamma ray led by the company affiliated to the University of Technology of Sydney UTS Geophysics Pty Ltd lasted approximately a year, in 2007. The survey covered the total area of the country along north-south lines spaced 75 km and east-west transverses spaced 400 km.

The new national database will contribute to a better understanding of the geology, structure, geochemistry and geomorphology of the continent and facilitate the exploration for new mineral and energy resources. The data will be available free in the ERMapper format on the website of Geoscience Australia.