The nine laboratories are the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, Moscow (VIG), the Department of Geology and Geography, University of Alabama (ALA), the Centre Océanologique de Bretagne, Brest, France (COB), the Institut für Petrographie und Geochemie der Universitàt Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Federal Republic of Germany (UKAR), the Department of Geology, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom (UNUT), the Institute of Geology of Ore Deposits, Petrography Mineralogy, and Geochemistry, Moscow (IGOD), the Institut Dolomieu, Université de Grenoble, France (UGRE), and the Centre de Sédimentologie et Géochimie de la Surface, Strasbourg, France (CSGS).