During the 1967-1968 period chemical analysis of both major and trace elements was performed on manganese nodules, crusts and micronodules on a large number of cores taken by the Lamont-Doherty Observatory during various cruises of the R/V Vema and the R/V Robert D. Conrad. Methods of analysis were a combination of Wet chemistry and Atomic Absorption Analysis (AAS). Most of the samples are related to buried deposits inside sediment columns. This data was released to Dr. W. M. Ewing, the then Director of Lamont Geological Observatory who handed the results to S. K. Addy for his review and research work (see, related document: S. K. Addy, 1978). It was later included in the SIO Nodule Database and finally transferred into the NOAA-MMS database.

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1989 NOAA-NCEI compiled the NOAA-MMS Marine Minerals Geochemical Database from journal articles, technical reports and unpublished sources from other institutions.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