At Sites 47 and 48, impenetrable and cherty Upper Cretaceous chalks were found. The upper part of what infer to be lower Cretaceous is even more reflective, and likely to be very cherty (and was found to be cherty in the Vema core). It became clear that basement could only be reached where the Upper Cretaceous and the upper part of the lower Cretaceous are absent. However, west of Site 48, the R/V Argo record showed an area in which the Upper Cretaceous has wedged out down dip, and the Lower Cretaceous is thinning out by loss of the strongly reflective beds at the top. This area appeared to offer the best chance for sampling the lowermost transparent layer. Two holes were drilled: Hole 49.0 and Hole 49.1 after Hole 49.0 stopped at 18 m. Beds near the base of sedimentary sequence revealed by the seismic profiles are found to be of early Cretaceous (Neocomian) or latest Jurassic (Tithonian) age, and of pelagic facies. The crust under the Shatsky Rise is latest Jurassic or older.

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1989 NOAA-NCEI compiled the NOAA-MMS Marine Minerals Geochemical Database from journal articles, technical reports and unpublished sources from other institutions.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: Heezen, Bruce C; Fischer, A G; Boyce, Robert E; Bukry, David; Douglas, Robert G; Garrison, Robert E; Kling, S A; Krasheninnikov, Valery A; Lisitzin, Alexander P; Pimm, Anthony C (1971): Site 49. In: Fischer, A.G.; et al., Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, 6, Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, 6, U.S. Government Printing Office, VI, 171-194