The manganese minerals constitutive of ferromanganese nodules retrieved during cruises of the R/V Vityaz wer determined by X-ray diffraction. The analyses were made of well crystallized microscopic areas and several X-ray analyses were made for each nodule. The samples for analyses were selected under a microscope by P. F. Andrushchenko, using reflectivity as a criterion for distinguishing between Todorolite and Birnessite.

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1989 NOAA-NCEI compiled the NOAA-MMS Marine Minerals Geochemical Database from journal articles, technical reports and unpublished sources from other institutions.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 1, pp. 85 of the related publication.