Seismic reflection profiles across the Labrador Sea by Vema-19 and Charcot-S had revealed a rugged basement topography almost entirely buried by sediments up to 2000 meters thick. It was first suggested that this was the median valley of a mid-Labrador Sea ridge where oceanic crust was generated during the last phase of opening of the Labrador Sea but which is now virtually inactive and covered by sediment. The choice of a site where basement could be dated by sampling sediments that were believed to be the same age as the basement was difficult. Site 113 was eventually chosen in a local valley 8 kilometers south of a small knoll believed, from the Vema-ll record, to be a basement high.

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1989 NOAA-NCEI compiled the NOAA-MMS Marine Minerals Geochemical Database from journal articles, technical reports and unpublished sources from other institutions.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: Laughton, Anthony S; Berggren, William A; Benson, Richard N; Davies, Thomas A; Franz, Ulrich; Musich, L F; Perch-Nielsen, Katharina; Ruffman, A; van Hinte, Jan E; Whitmarsh, Robert B; Bukry, David (1972): Site 113. In: Laughton, A.S.; Berggren, W.A.; et al., Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, U.S. Government Printing Office, XII, 255-311