During DSDP Leg 70, a 1.60 m thick manganese oxide layer was sampled in hole 509B. This deposit is formed of alternating layers of hard plates of pure todorokite, about 2 mm thick, and of a more powdery material deeply impregnated with manganese oxide, about 3 mm thick. A SEM study of the plates and the associated powder shows that the powdery material is a transformation of a pre-existing sediment, while the plates are a direct precipitation from a hydrothermal solution.The uranium series disequilibrium method was used to determine the ages of the plates. They are found to be in good chronological sequence and in accordance with the sedimentation rate of the area (4.9 cm/10^3 years) which implies that they have been formed at the sediment-seawater interface during a pulsed injection of hydrothermal solution. The powder presents systematically an “older age” which is explained by a slowing down of the injection while the normal sediment settles; the older age is due to the 230Th excess of the sediment.

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1989 NOAA-NCEI compiled the NOAA-MMS Marine Minerals Geochemical Database from journal articles, technical reports and unpublished sources from other institutions.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: Lalou, Claude; Brichet, Evelyne; Jehanno, Celestine; Perez-Leclaire, Heloise (1983): Hydrothermal manganese oxide deposits from Galapagos mounds, DSDP Leg 70, hole 509B and Alvin dives 729 and 721. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 63(1), 63-75