The principal goal of Site 543 was definition of an oceanic reference section. One of the specific objectives was to provide a physical-property profile through the undisturbed oceanplate section and thereby a basis for measuring the tectonic consolidation of any offscraped rocks of similar lithology in the area of the Tiburon and Barracuda rises which constitute prominent highs emerging from the Atlantic abyssal plain and presently intersecting the deformation front of the Barbados Ridge complex.

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1989 NOAA-NCEI compiled the NOAA-MMS Marine Minerals Geochemical Database from journal articles, technical reports and unpublished sources from other institutions.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