DSDP Leg 72 of the Glomar Challenger addressed paleoceanographic objectives in the southwestern Atlantic. It was planned to extend the observations and interpretations from the Leg 39 report in order to btain a complete deposition record of pelagic sedimentation on the Rio Grande Rise, down to and including the underlying volcanic basement.

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1989 NOAA-NCEI compiled the NOAA-MMS Marine Minerals Geochemical Database from journal articles, technical reports and unpublished sources from other institutions.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