Multibeam bathymetry raw data using the ship's own Atlas Hydrographic Hydrosweep DS 2 multibeam echo sounder was not continuously recorded during RV METEOR cruise M51/4. Data was recorded on 11 days between 2001-12-13 and 2001-12-24. This dataset contains a survey in the Black Sea and in the Sea of Marmara, covering shallow and deep areas. The data are archived at the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency of Germany (Bundesamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie, BSH) and provided to PANGAEA database for data curation and publication. No ancillary sound velocity profiles (SVP) files from the cruise are archived at the BSH, thus no SVP files are added to this dataset. This publication is conducted within the efforts of the German Marine Research Alliance in the core area 'Data management and Digitalization' (Deutsche Allianz Meeresforschung, DAM). Data are unprocessed and therefore contains incorrect depth measurements (artifacts) without further processing. Note that refraction errors can be expected due to the lack of proper SVP. Overall, it appears that the data quality is rather moderate since the gridded hillshade data showed some obstacles (occasionally the swath width doubles in the Black Sea area). Data can be processed e.g. with the open source software package MB-System (Caress, D. W., and D. N. Chayes, MB-System: Mapping the Seafloor, http://www.mbari.org/products/research-software/mb-system/, 2025).

These data should not be used for navigational purposes.Data publishing was realized by Daniel Damaske, MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (University Bremen).