During the RV Meteor cruise 34/4 an extensive sediment sampling program was carried out in order to reconstruct surface and deep-water circulation in the western equatorial Atlantic. Six complete sediment-time series were obtained from traps moored during M 29/3. Box corer, multicorer and gravity corer were used to recover surface and late Quaternary sediments (between 35 and 3300 m) from the continental slope off Northeast Brasil, from the Amazon estuary and fan, and from the Caribbean continental slope off Barbados. Samples from the surface sediments and from the water column were taken to study stable isotope composition in relation to organic matter degradation processes. By the shipboard echosounder system Hydrosweep and Parasound, bathymetry and sediment structures of the ocean floor were continuously recorded. Micropaleontologic studies were directed on the distribution of dinoflagellates and on the composition of coccolithophore communities. (WEN)Available from TIB Hannover: RO 7630(80) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman