Manganese Nodule Chemistry from the Cape Leeuwin Field, Western Australia

A preliminary report on the manganese nodule field southwest of Western Australia published in this Journal recently (Frakes, Exon and Granath, 1977) quoted chemical analyses which were carried out on air-dried material. Significantly higher metal values have been recorded in some later analyses done on nodules dried at 105°C. The relevant chemical data now available on this material are summarised in the accompanying table: in this table metal values (by atomic absorption spectrophotometry) have been recalculated assuming a moisture content of 16 percent.

Use Cases

• Compare metal content values based on different drying methods mentioned in the description.
• Analyze the relationship between moisture content and reported metal concentrations.
• Study the geochemical composition of manganese nodules from a specific offshore region.
• Validate analytical methodologies for marine sediment samples.

Strengths

• Chemical data has been recalculated to a standardized moisture content of 16 percent.
• Metal values were determined using atomic absorption spectrophotometry.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Chemical analysis via atomic absorption spectrophotometry on seabed samples.

Time Range

Referenced study from 1977.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 20:12:43.918992; freshness should be verified

Geography

Cape Leeuwin field off the southwest coast of Western Australia.