An acoustically very transparent layer is present over much of the deep basin—here termed the Central Basin—between the Gilbert and Marshall Islands on the west and the Line Islands on the east. The Pacific Panel recommended drilling in this region to sample at least the upper transparent layer, and the first opaque layer beneath. Several possible sites were considered by the panel and by the shipboard party. Of paramount importance in choosing a particular site was a concern that sufficient sediments be present to bury the bottom-hole assembly (the drill collars and bumper subs) before the bit struck hard rock. A set of nearly continuous cores of an apparently uninterrupted section of radiolarian ooze ranging in age from middle Eocene to Recent was obtained, but the bit did not reach the deepest seismic reflector. Below depths of 127 meters, in the Oligocene and Eocene, thin chert and turbidite beds are sparsely interbedded with ooze.

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1989 NOAA-NCEI compiled the NOAA-MMS Marine Minerals Geochemical Database from journal articles, technical reports and unpublished sources from other institutions.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: Winterer, Edward L; Riedel, William R; Moberly, Ralph; Resig, Johanna M; Kroenke, Loren W; Gealy, E L; Heath, G Ross; Bronnimann, P; Martini, E; Worsley, Thomas R (1971): Site 65. In: Winterer, E.L.; et al., Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, 7, Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, 7, U.S. Government Printing Office, VII, 607-723