The MARIANA I- expedition had three main aims: 1) Performance of an ODP-site pre-survey of a serpentinite diapir in the Mariana fore-arc region; 2) Investigation of volcanism and hydrothermalism in the Mariana back-arc basin; 3. Investigation of the distribution of manganese nodules and crusts in the Philippine basin. During the transect across the Philippine basin, 7 different regions comprising a total of 37 stations were sampled. Investigations were carried out in areas over the Kyushu-Palau and Central ridges, as well as in one shallow-water and 4 deep (~ 5000 m) water regions scattered across the basin. The shallow-water station yielded manganese-nodule-covered, semilithified foraminiferal sand. Larger nodules (up to 10 cm in diameter) were found on the Kyushu- Palau ridge. They were associated with foraminiferal sand and carbonate ooze. In addition, hydrogenetic manganese crusts were also dredged at both the Kyushu-Palau and Central ridges.

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1989 NOAA-NCEI compiled the NOAA-MMS Marine Minerals Geochemical Database from journal articles, technical reports and unpublished sources from other institutions.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