Ferromanganese deposit samples (nodule and crust) taken from cores and dredges retrieved during the past R/V Marion Dufresne cruise from 1973 until 1992 are stored in the collections of the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle (MNHN) (https://www.mnhn.fr/fr/sediments-et-roches-oceaniques). They can be queried interactively using a dedicated Internet platform (https://science.mnhn.fr/institution/mnhn/collection/gs/item/search) and are avilable on site for sampling and study.

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1989 NOAA-NCEI compiled the NOAA-MMS Marine Minerals Geochemical Database from journal articles, technical reports and unpublished sources from other institutions.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.