Site 79 is located on the crest of the equatorial Pacific sediment belt (Ewing and others, 1968) and is the westernmost of a series of sites (79, 81, 82 and 83) that follow the crest of this belt eastward to and across the crest of the oceanic ridge, locally known as the East Pacific Rise. The purpose of these sites is two-fold: 1) to study variations in biostratigraphy and sediment type from west to east across the Pacific and 2) to paleontologically date basement and determine the rate of spreading of the Pacific plate since the time of deposition of the oldest sediments at Site 77.

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1989 NOAA-NCEI compiled the NOAA-MMS Marine Minerals Geochemical Database from journal articles, technical reports and unpublished sources from other institutions.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: Hays, J D; Cook, Harry E III; Jenkins, D Graham; Cook, F M; Fuller, J T; Goll, Robert M; Milow, E Dean; Orr, W N (1972): Site 79. In: Hays, J.D.; et al., Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, 9, U.S. Government Printing Office, IX, 317-400