The cruise was devoted to two main objectives following along projects started in previous years, and to several subsidiary objectives: (1) the study of tectonic processes in mid-ocean ridges and associated fracture zones, (2) the evoluion of King's Trough, (3) the sediment transport mechanism of Rockall Trough.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1989 NOAA-NCEI compiled the NOAA-MMS Marine Minerals Geochemical Database from journal articles, technical reports and unpublished sources from other institutions.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.