The Blake Plateau ferromanganese samples were obtained during the USGS GOS74 Expedition in 1965. Most of them are related to a phosphorite substrate. Samples were ground and subsequently sieved to <105 micons. Water loss was determined after heating the powder at 500°C for one hour. Mn, Fe, P, Co, Cu, Mo, Ni are determined by ICP (Inductively Coupled Plasma) Spectroscopy after separation following a disgestion in HNO3-HCl-HF solution.

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1989 NOAA-NCEI compiled the NOAA-MMS Marine Minerals Geochemical Database from journal articles, technical reports and unpublished sources from other institutions.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 2a, pp. 27 of the related publication.