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 processed data sources: During the RV MARIA S. MERIAN cruise MSM57/2, the moon-pooled Kongsberg EM1002 shallow multibeam echosounder was utilized. The EM1002 uses a nominal sounding frequency of 95 kHz. 111 beams with an acoustical footprint of 2°(Tx)/2°(Rx) are formed for each ping. For further information consult http://www.tdi-bi.com/downloads/EM1002_Product_specification.pdf. Only the shallow area west of Prins Karls Forland has been mapped in parallel with the EM122, the rest of the time the EM1002 was not used. 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. 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