Leg 42, Part 1 of the Deep Sea Drilling Project was scheduled to continue the geological exploration of the Mediterranean. The strategy was to search for areas where the Mediterranean Evaporite formation had been largely or completely removed by erosion, such is the case for Site 372. For Leg 42, Part 2, the project entered the Black Sea. In particular, Site 379 was located the central portion of the Black Sea.

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1989 NOAA-NCEI compiled the NOAA-MMS Marine Minerals Geochemical Database from journal articles, technical reports and unpublished sources from other institutions.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.

Supplement to: Worstell, Paula J; Mélières, Frédéric; Bernoulli, Daniel; Erickson, A J; Wright, Ramil; Bizon, G; Cita, Maria Bianca; Müller, Carla; Kidd, Robert B; Fabricius, F H; Garrison, Robert E; Hsü, Kenneth J; Montadert, Lucien (1978): Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project. Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, U.S. Government Printing Office, XLII Pt. 1, 1249 pp + 1244 pp