In 1978 during cruise CK-78(2) of the R/V Machias scattered manganese nodules were recovered from three stations in the Samoa Basin and abundant nodules from five stations in the South Penrhyn Basin. In 1980 during cruises CK-80(1) and CK-80(2) numerous nodules were recovered from the Penrhyn Basin. In order to evaluate their potential economic value, samples from these stations were analysed for Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu and Co using Atomic absorption spectrophotometry.

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1989 NOAA-NCEI compiled the NOAA-MMS Marine Minerals Geochemical Database from journal articles, technical reports and unpublished sources from other institutions.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.This dataset represents the digitized Table 1, pp. 52 of the related publication.