The cores described in this report were taken on the DOWNWIND Expedition in October 1957 to February 1958 by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography from the R/V Spencer F. Baird and the R/V Horizon. A total of 201 cores and dredges were recovered and are available at Scripps for sampling and study.

From 1983 until 1989 NOAA-NCEI compiled the NOAA-MMS Marine Minerals Geochemical Database from journal articles, technical reports and unpublished sources from other institutions. At the time it was the most extended data compilation on ferromanganese deposits world wide. Initially published in a proprietary format incompatible with present day standards it was jointly decided by AWI and NOAA to transcribe this legacy data into PANGAEA. This transfer is augmented by a careful checking of the original sources when available and the encoding of ancillary information (sample description, method of analysis...) not present in the NOAA-MMS database.