SLATE AT THE 2019 EUROPEAN RESEARCHERS' NIGHT

RACHEL BARRETT (ESR1), TUGDUAL GAUCHERY (ESR3) | @ ECKERNFÖRDE (GERMANY) and BOLOGNA (ITALY) (27 September 2019)

SLATE at the European Researchers' Night in Eckernförde, Germany Rachel Barrett ESR 1

The European Researchers’ Night is an annual event that occurs simultaneously in multiple European cities, and gives researchers the opportunity to present their work to the public. Researchers can use a variety of mediums to present their work – and their enthusiasm for science – to the public. In Eckernförde (Northern Germany), where Rachel Barrett (ESR1) presented her work, there were, amongst others: lectures; posters; interactive science experiments; short films; a livestream from the international space station; a musical accompaniment to parts of the Blue Planet BBC documentary; an open ship (the German Research Vessel Littorina); and an “innovation truck” (highlighting work from local start-ups).

I (Rachel) presented a poster that addressed my recent work on the volcanic-flank collapse of Fogo Island in the Cape Verdes, as well as the broader implications of work on submarine landslides (i.e. hazard analysis). I shared a tent with a couple of researchers from GEOMAR Kiel who also work on submarine landslides and hazard analysis/mitigation, and the collaboration was very successful. I also did a short presentation about my research (and why I am a scientist/what makes me excited about science) during a transition between short films that were shown on a big outdoors screen. I was impressed at the high level of public engagement at the event – during the six hours we were there, there were seldom a few minutes where we were not discussing our research (and science in general) with members of the public, both young and old, and people were engaged and interested. I really enjoyed being able to present my work at the European Researchers’ Night in Eckernförde, and look forward to being involved again next year.

Location

• Eckernförde, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

Impressions

SLATE at the European Researchers' Night in Bologna, Italy Tugdual Gauchery ESR 3

This was the first year I (Tugdual) did outreach at the European Researchers’ Night, and I participated in Bologna. I went with colleagues from my research group to present the work done at ISMAR (CNR) on microfossils, geochemistry, deep-water corals and sedimentology. I used this opportunity to show my work with multi-channel seismic profiles, explain how and why we acquire these data, and how (coupled with other proxies) we can reconstruct the history of a sedimentary basin.

Within a project funded by the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, I had the chance to participate at the stand along with fellow Marie-Curie-funded researchers from Bologna. They asked us to bring a mysterious object related to our work and leave it on the table. To enhance curiosity, the game was to let the public pick a profile on the table (with a picture of us and key words related to our work) and correlate it with the mystery object. Once they succeeded, we could engage in conversation to explain our work in more detail and discuss what the object is. For this occasion, I brought a core catcher and once they guessed what it was, I explained the use of the core together with seismics (with images) to identify gravity-driven flows (explained with sketch), which represents a hazards for coastal cities and offshore infrastructures.

Overall, this was a fantastic experience to explain my work to the public and bring/reinforce an interest in science, especially for young people. I was very surprised by the number of young people who came to the stand and were interested in our work. It was challenging to explain my work in a simple and interesting way, especially in Italian, but it was very useful and enjoyable. Thank you!

Location

• Bologna, Italy

Impressions

A GUIDE AROUND EGU 2019

ESR1, ESR 2, ESR 3, ESR 4, ESR 5, ESR 6, ESR 7, ESR 8, ESR 9, ESR 12, ESR 13, ESR 14, ESR15 | @ VIENNA, AUSTRIA (7-12 April 2019)

“The EGU General Assembly 2019 was a great success with 5,531 oral, 9,432 poster, and 1,287 PICO presentations that were attended by 16,273 scientists from 113 countries” (Copernicus Meetings, 2019).

SLATE was well represented with 12 PhD candidates, PIs (Achim Kopf, Michael Clare, Carl Harbitz, Finn Lovholt, Michael Strasser) and Aggeliki Georgiopoulou from the advisory board presenting their work.

Get your patch and let’s get started. Presenting our work

Rachel, Jonathan, Tugdual, Shray, Kate, William and Matthias drew crowds of people into the lecture rooms with their amazing presentations. They spoke on a variety of topics; covering different aspects of turbidites and their evolution, contourites and submarine landslides.

“I was very happy to be able to present my work at this conference, as it gives an occasion to present our work in front of a wide audience with very diverse backgrounds. I came out with very good feedback and advice for my work.” (Tugdual Gauchery, ESR 3)

„It was my first time at the EGU and it was overwhelmingly large. I had the opportunity to talk to several researchers after my talk – it is always good to get feedback on both the positive and negative parts of ones research.” (Shray Badhani, ESR 4)

Davide, Ting-Wei, Stefano, Ricarda and Maddalena presented their work in the poster sessions and attracted a lot of people.

“Presenting a poster at a conference like EGU is a great learning opportunity for any early career scientist. On one hand, I had the chance to discuss my research with people working in the same research field and to meet scientists I had only known from reading their papers. What surprised me the most, however, were the questions I got from scientists specialized in completely different fields, looking at my project from a prospective I do not usually consider. People who were just randomly walking around posters asked me the most challenging questions, highlighting issues that I never considered before, but that helped me to have a more complete understanding of what I am studying.” (Davide Mencaroni,  ESR 6)

And learning new things

Apart from presenting our own work, we took the opportunity to learn more about work from outside our own fields. Alongside the traditional poster and oral presentations, EGU also hosts so called “PICO” presentations (Presenting Interative COntent) and short courses on more general topics in science.

“One thing that I really enjoyed about EGU were the PICO sessions. PICOs start with quick-fire two minute presentations from each researcher to briefly introduce their topic and state their main conclusions. After, everyone moves across to the interactive area, where each presenter has their own workstation and large screen. This really facilitates discussion and allows for more flexibility that a standard poster or talk. For me, the PICO sessions are a great way to be introduced to an unfamiliar area, because the results are presented up front and you get to see a rapid cross section of the state-of-the-art in a particular field.” (Jonathan Ford, ESR 2)

 “It was a great opportunity to get some insights from overlapping, but vastly different, fields. For instance to see what the current state of research in Powder Snow Avalanches is, or to get some background knowledge on numerical modelling in turbidity currents as preparation for my secondment at NGI.” (Kate Heerema, ESR 5)

“One of the most exciting sessions I attended was on the recent tsunami events in Sulawesi and West Java (Krakatao), Indonesia (Blog). Although most of the group seemed to agree that these tsunami events were, in fact, submarine landslide-related, there was some surprisingly lively pushback from at least one seasoned researcher. I think the overall tsunami community seems to be experiencing a small paradigm shift in how they think about tsunami hazards. I also enjoyed stopping by different poster sessions related to tsunami hazards and had some great networking conversations with a group of researchers from Singapore about their work and how it relates to some tsunami survey work that I previously did as a master’s student” (William Meservy, ESR 12)

“I went to three courses, of which I especially liked the “Visualizing Science” course. I think we often forget how important it is to present our research to other scientists, as well as to the general public.” (Ricarda Gatter, ESR 9)

“The quantity and variety of soft skill courses available at the EGU undoubtedly adds value to the conference. I attended a course about communicating science with the general public and enjoyed hearing different perspectives about what effective communication looks like, and how that can take different forms. One point that stood out was the value of knowing when it is worthwhile to get the assistance of people who are trained in communication, such as journalists, to communicate significant results.” (Rachel Barrett, ESR 1)

Need help to find your way around? - use the EGU App

Finding your way around a big conference such as EGU can be difficult. Luckily, there was an app available in which you could find all the contributions and put together your personal programme. In addition, we kept everybody up to date with our own contributions via Twitter.

“I knew that EGU is the most important Geoscience conference in Europe, but I didn’t expect something like this. It was difficult not to be impressed by the amount of different topics and talks, but above all, I was struck by the hundreds of posters that everyday are hanging in these huge rooms.” (Maddalena Sammartini, ESR 15)

To sum it up

“I was honestly impressed by the EGU conference. It was the perfect environment to discuss a wide range of research topics and learn about other researchers’ PhD experiences.” (Stefano Collico, ESR 8)

 “It is such a great international experience. I even met my friends from my home university in India. I am already looking forward to EGU2020.” (Shray Badhani, ESR 4)

“One of the highlights of the experience for me was that I was lucky enough to be able to bring my wife and kids along to explore Vienna. In the evenings, we were able to walk in the city together and eat a lot of goulash and Viennese chocolate cake” (William Meservy, ESR 12)

“EGU is an essential event for every geoscientist working Europe. It is the perfect opportunity to  meet new people with common interests, present the latest progress of your work, get valuable feedback and to foster old friendships” (Matthias Rauter, ESR 14)

EGU - Let's meet again Location

• Vienna, Austria

Venue

• Austria Center Vienna

Conference Schedule

• Online Session Programme

SLATE participants ESRs:

• R. Barrett, ESR1 [Talk]
• J. Ford, ESR2 [Talk]
• T. Gauchery, ESR3 [Talk]
• S. Badhani, ESR4 [Talk]
• K. Heerema, ESR5 [Talk]
• D. Mencaroni, ESR6 [Poster]
• T-W Wu, ESR7 [Poster]
• S. Collico, ESR8 [Poster]
• R. Gatter, ESR9 [Poster]
• W. Meservy [Talk]
• T. Zengaffinen, ESR13 [Poster]
• M. Rauter, ESR14 [Talk]
• M. Sammartini, ESR15 [Poster]

other SLATE members:

• A. Kopf, PI of ESR7 [Poster]
• M. Clare, PI of ESR10 [PICO]
• C. Harbitz, PI of ESR13
• F. Løvholt, PI of ESR14 [Poster]
• F. Løvholt, PI of ESR14 [Convener]
• M. Strasser, PI of ESR15
• A. Georgiopoulou, Advisory Board [Talk]

Ifemer 2nd part-Tugdual Gauchery

        My second stay at Ifremer (Best, France), with my co-supervisor Antonio Cattaneo, lasted one month from 15/04 to the 15/05/2019 and aimed to work on the first manuscript. This tight collaboration with Antonio and other experts from Ifremer helped in the writing process. The manuscript deals with the relationships between contourite deposits and submarine landslides studied with multi- and single-channel seismic profiles. Thanks to these profiles, we could look at the evolution of the Pliocene-Pleistocene succession of the Gela Basin (Strait of Sicily, central Mediterranean Sea) from shelf to basin. The sedimentary succession recorded the re-initiation of sediment deposition after the Messinian Salinity crisis (-5.332 Ma). Our interpretation of the profiles indicates that the number of MTDs increased in the northearn sector after the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (0.8 Ma) but remained a few in the south, where they involve the entire stratigraphic succession and are larger in extent, and correspond to identified mass-wasting of contourites deposited after the second last erosional surface (ES2). ES2 is located at the base of one MTD deriving from the collapse of a contourite drift and may have acted as a glide plane.

Secondment at Ifremer, Brest

Tugdual Gauchery (ESR3) | @ IFREMER Brest, France (OCTOBER 2018)

I made a secondment to IFREMER in Brest (France) from late September to beginning of October. The goal of my visit was to do grain size analysis of soft sediments to study the sortable silt (10-63μm) with a MALVER mastersizer 3000. We are particularly interested in this size fraction as it allows us to better understand the action of present and past bottom-currents (McCave et al, 1995). To do so, I sampled every 5 cm on 2 piston cores (9 m and 11 m) recovered from my study area, acidified the samples to destroy the biocomponents (to have only the sediments) and freeze-dried them to dissociate the grains. After the grain size measurement, I started to analyse the data and made some interpretation with the help of my co-supervisor (Antonio Cattaneo). The first results show a very detailed analysis of the grain size corresponding to abrupt climate change between 10 and 20 kyr BP, but are more difficult to interpret in the most recent time as the cores reaches 10 kyr BP around a depth of 1 m. This work will be complemented with analyses on CHIRP sonar profiles and multi-channel seismic profiles to reconstruct the sedimentary dynamics of the Gela Basin (central Mediterranean Sea).

Impressions

Where?

• IFREMER Brest, France

When?

• October 2018

Supervision

• Antonio Cattaneo (IFREMER)

Review of the ECORD Training Course 2018: "Virtual Ship Experience"

Shray Badhani (ESR 4), Monika Wiebe (ESR 11), Ting-Wei Wu (ESR 7) | @ MARUM, Bremen, Germany (23-27 April 2018)

From 23rd to 27th April, a group of seven SLATE ESRs participated in the ECORD Training Course 2018, which took place at MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, Bremen. The first thing we had to get used to during this course was the number of abbreviations - ECORD, IODP, BCR, MSP, LWD, MSCL, and so on – it was easy to get confused there.

First of all, ECORD is short for European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling, which consists of 14 European countries and Canada. It is also part of IODP – the International Ocean Discovery Program, a collaboration of 23 nations. IODP conducts research expeditions world-wide that recover sediment and hard rock cores from the seafloor in order to explore and solve scientific questions. The recovered cores are first processed onboard and then analysed onshore. Finally they are stored in one of the three core repositories, one of which is located at MARUM in Bremen. The Bremen Core Repository (BCR) hosts all cores from the North and South Atlantic Ocean; it presently contains 156 km of IODP cores from 90 expeditions.

The idea of the ECORD Training Course is to prepare and train young scientists for life and work aboard an IODP expedition. In total we were 31 participants, mainly PhD students, from different fields out of the marine sciences. The course provided us with a one-week “Vir­tual Ship Ex­per­i­ence” fo­cus­ing on the various methods used to analyse cores on board, but also on life on an IODP ship, and how to write an IODP proposal. It consisted of four main parts:

1. Introduction to IODP and ECORD

The course started with a general welcome, introduction and information part. Ursula Röhl, Rüdiger Stein and Holger Kuhlmann introduced us to the structure and objectives of IODP and ECORD as well as the purpose of this training course. Even though it was also a bit confusing, it was interesting to hear about what has to happen and how all the different panels and boards work together until an expedition can actually take place. In the end of this introductory session, Dierk Hebbeln took us on a tour through the MARUM. We visited the IODP core repository and also had a look at the different kinds of marine technology that are developed and applied by the MARUM, including the MeBo drill rig.

2. Virtual shipboard work at BCR/MARUM

In this part we learned how to work on cores on board. One of the most important parts is the core description. Core description is the first thing to do when the cores are obtained on deck before sediment properties begin to change afterwards. Visual observation at the time when the cores are still “fresh” can only rely on the skills of the describers. After the core description, the cores are placed on the machines (e.g. Multi-Sensor Core Logger, MSCL) for core logging, high-resolution linescan imaging and color scanning, and then sampled for different methods to obtain other physical and chemical properties. For example, pore water acquisition and analysis can provide us with concentration data such as salinity, nutrients, PH, alkalinity, ammonium, chloride, and sulphide. Smear slide analysis is a very simple and inexpensive way to determine some major components (e.g. sediment type and diatom data) of fine-grained sediments under the microscope. Biostratigraphy also uses microscopes but focuses on correlating and assigning relative ages of sediments by using the fossil assemblages contained within them.

3. Introductory seminars to general shipboard activities

In addition to these lab turns which were done in small groups, we also had seminars as a whole group. These gave us some more information as to what exactly happens on an IODP expedition. One of the most interesting and memorable talks was held by Oscar Romero who gave us a lively report of a recent expedition he attended, JR374. This expedition on IODP vessel JOIDES Resolution went from New Zealand to the West Antarctic ice sheet in order to investigate climatic and oceanic changes. With his pictures and stories Oscar Romero gave us a good idea on how both work and leisure time is spent on an IODP expedition. In this part we also learned how to obtain data and samples from previous expeditions, and did some practical work on core correlation and splicing. This is a method that ensures that a complete record is obtained by drilling more than one hole on one site.

4. Interactive session on defining drilling targets and strategies including drilling proposal writing

A successful IODP proposal needs a great idea, lots of planning, and execution at the right time due to the geographical location of the drilling vessels. In this session, we were given a general idea of a timeline of a successful IODP proposal and an introductory seminar on proposal writing. Our group was then asked to form small teams of 5-6 participants to write a short proposal and present it in front of the rest of the group and the lecturers. It was a challenging task for all of us since we all had different scientific backgrounds and had to find a way to present the ideas of the whole team. However, we were told that the most successful proposals are usually the ones which have the most multi-disciplinary objectives.

Overall the ECORD training course was a success and provided all of us with new knowledge and understanding as to what IODP is and does, and how we personally can use the acquired data or get involved.

"It is very useful to know how to work with different disciplines on board. I learned the orders of experiments and how a cruise mission is organized. I think the most precious part of the course is that it strengthened my skills to communicate and cooperate with researchers with different backgrounds." Ting-Wei Wu ESR 7 "As a geophysicist, I spend most of my time working behind a computer -- so getting some "hands on" experience working with the cores and the laboratory analysis was great. I hope to use downhole logs and physical property measurements from the NanTroSEIZE expeditions during my PhD. For me it was very useful to learn more about the core handling and data archiving procedures, particularly around splicing core sections. I would recommend this course to anyone who plans to use any IODP datasets, as it was an excellent overview of the technical operations and wider scientific goals of the programme." Jonathan Ford ESR 2 “The IODP Training Course was very instructive; especially to learn more about all the analyses proceeded on the cores from the recovery until the storage. Even if some of the methods used were familiar to me, I found it very interesting to see how they use these methods during an IODP cruise and how a day on board for each of them looks like. I particularly liked the hard rock core description, which was a step back in time to my first year at university and was a pleasant experience. In addition, I was very surprised by the biostratigraphy course, which the speaker made very interesting. Overall, it was a great experience, the team was really nice and the course made me want to participate in IODP expeditions.” Tugdual Gauchery ESR 3 “I applied to the course without really knowing what to expect and how it might help me in my research. Now I am glad that I had the chance to attend, as it really helped me to understand better what kind of data is obtained and why. For me the physical properties sessions were the most important ones as I am using this data and now know better how to work with it. I also highly enjoyed the chance to get to know other young scientists from around the world and hear about their different research topics.” Monika Wiebe ESR 11 “My main motivation to attend the course was to learn different techniques for sediment core analysis, which I will apply during the course of my PhD. It was also helpful to know about the accessibility of the openly available IODP core data, which we can also share with our colleagues. The course also helped me to grow my network in the scientific community, which is imperative for a career in academics.” Shray Badhani ESR 4 "The most important thing I got from the ECORD training course was to understand how to get the most out of IODP data. During the virtual ship labs we had the opportunity to see how very different types of data are collected and analyzed, providing a complete overview about what information one can get from a core. In this way I worked on topics that I am not really an expert in, and that I never thought could be useful for my research. The ECORD course provided a solid idea on how very different types of well data have to be considered together, in order to have a complete understanding about the well, and this is something I will definitely keep in mind while using their data in my research. Beside this, I obviously was really fascinated by the stories of IODP campaigns from people who have had the opportunity to directly live the experience. Who knows, maybe one day I will also be able to be part of the crew..." Davide Mencaroni ESR 6 Location

• MARUM, Bremen, Germany

Venue

• MARUM

Course Schedule

• Printout Program [PDF]

SLATE participants

• J. Ford, ESR2
• T. Gauchery, ESR3
• S. Badhani, ESR4
• D. Mencaroni, ESR6 
• T.-W. Wu, ESR7 
• R. Gatter, ESR9 
• M. Wiebe, ESR10

Impressions