During Valdivia cruise VA 13/2 dredging brought exceptionnally thick Mn crusts on top of basalt. One of these deposits is 22 cm thick and consists of three main zones and numerous subzones and layers. On the basis of the macroscopically visible zoning pattern and the natural planes of separation between subzones or layers, chemical analyses were carried out for Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Co, and Ba by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), U by delayed neutron activation analysis, and Ce and La by energy-dispersive X-ray analysis.

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1989 NOAA-NCEI compiled the NOAA-MMS Marine Minerals Geochemical Database from journal articles, technical reports and unpublished sources from other institutions.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 1, page 80 of the related publication.