Multibeam bathymetry raw data using the ship's own Kongsberg (Simrad) EM 120 multibeam echosounder was almost continuously recorded during RV METEOR cruise M77/2. Data was recorded on 27 days between 2008-11-25 and 2008-12-21. This dataset contains a survey in the South Pacific Ocean close to the coast of Peru and Ecuador. The approximate average depth of the entire dataset is around 1700m, ranging from 120m to 1000m . 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 revealed that SVP has not 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 since the gridded hillshade data showed relatively few obstacles. Note, that occasionally the EM710 device was partially operated at the same time, however it is not clear whether the simultaneous operation of both systems caused interference during data acquisition. Data can be processed e.g. with the open source software package MB-System (Caress et al. 2024, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6302801).

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