The principle objective at Site 118 was to sample a formation in the Bay of Biscay which had been tentatively ascribed to Lower Cretaceous or older sediments. However it was not clear that this corresponding seismic layer was not in fact part of an extremely irregular igneous basement structure, at least at the western end of the bay.

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1989 NOAA-NCEI compiled the NOAA-MMS Marine Minerals Geochemical Database from journal articles, technical reports and unpublished sources from other institutions.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: Laughton, Anthony S; Berggren, William A; Benson, Richard N; Davies, Thomas A; Franz, Ulrich; Musich, L F; Perch-Nielsen, Katharina; Ruffman, A; van Hinte, Jan E; Whitmarsh, Robert B; Aumento, Fabrizio; Clarke, A D; Ryall, J R; Cann, Joe R; Bryan, Wilfred B; Bukry, David (1972): Site 118. In: Laughton, A.S.; Berggren, W.A.; et al., Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, 12, Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, 12, U.S. Government Printing Office, XII, 673-751