The western part of the North Atlantic Ocean holds clues to some of the most intriguing questions in marine geology. But because the geologic problems are many and varied, the sites of Leg 44 were multipurpose in nature. In particular, some of the targets were : 1) the Blake Nose, a spur of the Blake Plateau, to determine the nature, age, and origin of reef-like structures recognized on seismic profiles and 2) the Blake Outer Ridge, a long low ridge of sediments that forms the eastern boundary of the Blake-Bahama Basin, where we hoped to study the stratigraphy and sample supposed clathrates.

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1989 NOAA-NCEI compiled the NOAA-MMS Marine Minerals Geochemical Database from journal articles, technical reports and unpublished sources from other institutions.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: Benson, William E; Enos, Paul; Freeman, Tom; Gradstein, Felix M; Murdmaa, Ivar O; Pastouret, L; Schmidt, Ronald R; Sheridan, Robert E; Stuermer, D H; Weaver, Fred M; Worstell, Paula J (1978): Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project. U. S. Government Printing Office, XLIV, 1005 pp