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Artifacts

Manganese Nodule Encased in Lucite

Artifact Details

A brownish lump of Manganese encased in a glass block.

In 1974, CIA hid their true intentions to recover a Soviet submarine by using the cover story that the Hughes Glomar Explorer was mining manganese nodules from the ocean.

The Hughes Glomar Explorer set sail into the Pacific Ocean on 20 June 1974. Although its true mission was to raise a Soviet K-129 ballistic missile submarine that had sunk six years earlier, the cover story for the operation was that eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes owned the ship and intended to use it to mine manganese nodules from the ocean floor.  This is one of the nodules that Glomar actually recovered from the Pacific.

Artifact Specs

9 cm x 9 cm x 7.5 cm

(L x W x H)

Learn More

Flag that Flew Above the Glomar Explorer

Project AZORIAN 40th Anniversary