NOAA and MMS Marine Minerals Geochemical Database

The Marine Minerals Geochemical Database was created by NGDC as a part of a project to construct a comprehensive computerized bibliography and geochemical database as a Cooperative effort with the Ocean Minerals and Energy Division of the National Ocean Service of NOAA, and the Office of Marine Minerals and International Activities (INTERMAR) of the Minerals Management Service. The marine minerals project was begun in April of 1983, and ended in 1991. Active compilation of the bibliography ended at NGDC in the fall of 1991. Coding of geochemical analyses at NGDC ended in 1989. The marine minerals database contains geochemical analyses and auxiliary information on present-day marine deposits of primarily ferromanganese nodules and crusts, but also contains some data for heavy minerals, and phosphorites. The NOAA & MMS Marine Minerals CDROM data set, funded by INTERMAR, containing the marine minerals geochemical database and bibliography with access software for PC and Macintosh platforms was released by NGDC in October of 1991. Sources of data include the historic Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) manganese nodule analysis file, the CNEXO ferromanganese nodule analysis file, ferromanganese crust data compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey, and data coded at NGDC from the scientific literature. A placer data set from the USGS is also included. The ferromanganese nodule/crust portion of the database contains over 140,000 element/oxide analyses. Approximately 1,400 heavy mineral analyses and fewer than 300 phosphorite analyses are in the database. The geochemical database is described online through the NGDC server.The geochemical database has been corrected and updated by the International Seabed Authority, sponsored by the United Nations - their geochemical database supersedes the NGDC database.