The IDOE/NSF Manganese Nodule Project: A Review of Progress

The Seabed Assessment Program of the Offices for the International Decade of Ocean Exploration, U. S. National Science Foundation has sponsored an inter-university project of research on marine manganese nodules since 1972. The project is studying the origin of manganese nodules and attempting to discern what processes lead to ore grade concentrations of minor metals within them. Significant progress has been made in understanding mineralogy, growth rates, sediment age, mode of formation, sediment interstitial fluid compositions, the role of organisms and the seafloor setting in which nodules are found. Future research in the project will be more process oriented than it has been in the past.