Chemical composition of manganese crusts dredged near the Galapagos Rift (Pleiades Leg 2 cruise of R/V Melville)

The samples analysed were dredged on Pleiades Leg II during a program of heat flow measurements, bottom photography and coring. They are located on topographic mounds in a band 20 km south of the Galapagos Rift on sediments ranging from 20 to 30 m in thickness. The dredge hauls were sampled to represent the diversity of dredged material either Mn encrusted altered basalt or relatively thick Mn coating deposited directly in contact with sediments. Each sample was analysed by atomic absorption spectrophotometry for major elemnts and instrumental neutron activation analysis for minor elements or rare earths.