Description: Multibeam echosounder (MBES) data recorded during RV MARIA S. MERIAN cruise MSM57/2 between 13.08.2016 and 07.09.2016 at Svalbard. The cruise investigated gas hydrate systems and their dynamics at the continental margin of Svalbard. The key instrument to be used during this expedition was the Bremen Deep Sea Drill Rig MeBo. Drilling during Leg 2 was concentrated mostly at the uppermost part of the continental slope offshore Prins Karls Forland. CI Citation: Paul Wintersteller (seafloor-imaging@marum.de) as responsible party for bathymetry raw data ingest and approval. Description of data source: During the RV MARIA S. MERIAN cruise MSM57/2, the hull-mounted Kongsberg EM122 multibeam echosounder with a nominal sounding frequency of 12 kHz was utilized. 288 beams with an acoustical footprint of 2°(Tx)/2°(Rx) are formed for each ping. For further information consult https://www.km.kongsberg.com/. During this cruise the swath width was set to 120° to improve data quality, reduce the amount of noisy data at the outer beams and increase the ping rate. The use of the high-density equidistant and the dual-swath mode of the EM122 resulted in up to 864 soundings per ping. The EM122 was running continuously during the cruise with an average vessel speed of about 4.4 kn. Responsible person during this cruise / PI: C. dos Santos Ferreira (cferreira@marum.de). Chief Scientist: G. Bohrmann (gbohrmann@marum.de) CR: http://elib.suub.uni-bremen.de/edocs/00105895-1.pdf CSR: https://www2.bsh.de/aktdat/dod/fahrtergebnis/2016/20160045.htm A special thanks goes to the watchkeeper during MSM57/2: Nikolas Stange, Michael Riedel