Samples of manganese nodules from the south Penrhyn Basin were analyzed for a number of elemental concentrations. Chemical analyses were performed by the Australian Mineral Development Laboratories (AMDEL), with funds contributed to CCOP/SOPAC by the Australian government, using XRF. Au and Pt were analyzed for using fire assay collection and emission spectrography. The overall chemical composition of nodulesfrom the south Penrhyn Basin is fairly uniform throughout the area sampled. The total spread of data is small and generally amounts to less than t. 20% of the mean, as measured by standard deviation except in the case of elements present in lower concentrations where analytical errors become more significant.

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1989 NOAA-NCEI compiled the NOAA-MMS Marine Minerals Geochemical Database from journal articles, technical reports and unpublished sources from other institutions.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 4, pp. 31 of the related publication.