This review covers the period from November 1974 through October 1976, and is a continuation of previous reviews. The search of Chemical Abstracts was aided by the Knowledge Availability Service Center at the University of Pittsburgh. Following nearly all citations in the Literature Cited, the Chemical Abstract (CA) volume and abstract numbers are given.Because of the worldwide interest in manganese nodules, references to the analysis of this material are cited. Special references are also made to papers describing surface-analysis techniques and data acquisition and reduction with the aid of microprocessors and computers.