Manganese nodules were investigated during the Downwind Expedition, a part of the International Geophysical Year programme of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of California. Attempts were made to collect bottom photographs, cores and dredge hauls in the same areas, to measure the distribution at the surface and in depth, and to obtain large samples for physical and chemical analysis.

Bottom photographs are part of a collection made available by the U.S. Navy Electronics, San Diego and can be downloaded from NOAA-NCEI: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/idb/struts/results?op_28=eq&v_28=09995025&t=101477&s=1&d=2. The DOWNWIND image data cards can be accessed here: hdl:10013/epic.46641.d007.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1989 NOAA-NCEI compiled the NOAA-MMS Marine Minerals Geochemical Database from journal articles, technical reports and unpublished sources from other institutions.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: Menard, H William; Shipek, CJ (1958): Surface concentrations of manganese nodules. Nature, 182(4643), 1156-1158