Knowledge of the oxidation states and of the chemical speciation of metals in ferromanganese deposits is of interest to aid in understanding the association of metals with the major oxyhydroxide phases and to gain further insight into the mechanisms of metal uptake. This type of analysis was conducted on ferromanganese nodules and crusts from the Pacific obtained from collections at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. For the bulk analyses, splits of the nodular material were ground in agate and analyzed by x-ray emission spectroscopy (XRE).

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1989 NOAA-NCEI compiled the NOAA-MMS Marine Minerals Geochemical Database from journal articles, technical reports and unpublished sources from other institutions.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, pp. 1566 of the related publication.