Bathymetry based on data recorded during MSM34-1 between 09.12.2013 and 27.12.2013 in the Black Sea. The main objective of this cruise was the localization and characterization of suitable gas hydrate deposits on the Danube deep-sea fan.

Detailed Processing:During the MSM34-1 cruise the Kongsberg EM122 multi-beam echo-sounder was used. The EM122 uses a nominal sounding frequency of 12 kHz. 288 beams or 432 soundings, with a 2°/2° footprint are formed for each ping while the seafloor is detected using amplitude and phase information for each beam sounding. For further information consult https://www.km.kongsberg.com/. Based on the acquisition of 2D seismic lines sufficient overlapping of the outer beams between adjacent profiles was possible. Thus the generation of a very detailed 25 m by 25 m bathymetry grid was possible. Responsible person during this cruise / PI: Jasper Hoffmann (jhoffmann@geomar.de), Ingo Klaucke (GEOMAR) Description of data processing:Postprocessing and products were conducted by the Seafloor-Imaging group of MARUM, responsible contact person: Paul Wintersteller (seafloor-imaging@marum.de). The open source software MB-system (Caress, D.W., and D.N. Chayes, MB-System Version 5, Open source software distributed from the MBARI and L-DEO web sites, 2000-2012.) was utilized for this purpose. A tide correction was applied, based on the Oregon State University (OSU) tidal prediction software (OTPS) that is retrievable through MB-System. In general, there is a tide differences of less than 20 cm in the Black Sea. Further roll, pitch, heave and SVP corrections were not necessary for the MSM34-1 data. Bathymetric data has been manually cleaned for existing artefacts with mbeditviz. NetCDF (GMT) grids of the product and the statistics were created using mbgrid. Quality assurance was furthermore proven by visual and statistical comparison of crossing survey-lines from different cruises throughout the Black Sea. No total propagated uncertainty (TPU) has been calculated to gather vertical or horizontal accuracy.The currently published bathymetric grid of the cruise has a resolution of 125 m. A higher resolution is, at least partly, achievable.