Manganese nodules, crusts and micronodules from dredges and cores were retrieved during campaign DM14 of R/V Dmitry Mendeleev in the Pacific Ocean. Their chemical composition was determined either by wet chemistry, atomic absorption spectroscopy or neutron activation depending upon the chemical element.

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1989 NOAA-NCEI compiled the NOAA-MMS Marine Minerals Geochemical Database from journal articles, technical reports and unpublished sources from other institutions.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