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2. Data and methods
2.1. Cruise BATHYSAINTES and ARRY-438162 data set
From 1 to 10 February 2010, cruise BATHYSAINTES (PIs: C. Deplus and N. Feuillet) surveyed Les Saintes archipelago seafloor, between Guadeloupe and Dominica, aboard the French N/O Pourquoi Pas? (Ifremer/French Navy) and SHOM's hydrographic launch Pelican. The main goal of the cruise was to acquire very high-resolution bathymetry on Les Saintes submarine plateau and in Les Saintes graben between Les Saintes and Dominica. In addition, the echo sounders provided metric-resolution backscatter images. At the same time, we acquired chirp subbottom profiles, gravity data and HR side-scan sonar imagery.
Three multibeam echo sounders were used during cruise BATHYSAINTES depending on the seafloor depth: the Reson Seabat 7111 echo sounder (100 kHz) of the N/O Pourquoi Pas? provided a bathymetric data set between 30 and 200 mbsl (meter below sea level; i.e. the plateau's depth) with a horizontal resolution of 1.25 m at a depth of 50 m. The Reson Seabat 7150 echo sounder (24 kHz) of the N/O Pourquoi Pas? provided bathymetric data of the seafloor deeper than 200 m with a horizontal resolution of 8.5 m at a depth of 1000 m (i.e. Les Saintes graben). The Kongsberg EM3002 echo sounder of the Pelican was used to acquire very shallow bathymetry (2–30 m deep) of the plateau between Les Saintes islands and provided a very high-resolution data set with a horizontal accuracy of 50 cm at a depth of 20 m.