In 1972, the Sea Scope Expedition was commissioned by Hughes Tool Company and carried out by Global Marine Development, Inc. The object was to gather detailed information on manganese nodules, including distribution, metallic content, methods of recovery, and sea floor bathymetry in noduliferous areas. Five of six planned cruise legs were successful. The resulting report is divided into three sections.

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1989 NOAA-NCEI compiled the NOAA-MMS Marine Minerals Geochemical Database from journal articles, technical reports and unpublished sources from other institutions.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: Greenslate, J L; Krutein, MG; Pasho, D (1978): Initial report of the 1972 Sea Scope expedition, 3 vols (No. P4470179 - OFR 118(1)-78). Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego