Multibeam bathymetry raw data using the ship's own Atlas Hydrographic Hydrosweep DS multibeam echo sounder was not continuously recorded during RV METEOR cruise M12/1. Data was recorded on 24 days between 1990-03-14 and 1990-04-13. This dataset contains a survey in the North and South Atlantic Ocean, covering mostly deep-water areas. The approximate average depth of the entire dataset is around 4200m.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. Data analysis of the multibeam raw data could not reveal whether the SVP has been changed during the survey.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 good to moderate since the gridded hillshade data showed relatively few obstacles. All files have been renamed from the suffix .0 (stored at BSH) to .dux.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/, 2022).

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