Henriette Wilckens

Report of GLOMAR PhD student Henriette Wilckens about her participation in the International Conference on Seafloor, Landforms, Processes and Evolution in Valletta, Malta from 4 to 6 July 2022

The international Conference on Seafloor, Landforms, Processes and Evolution took place in Valetta, the beautiful capital of Malta from the 4^th-6^th of July 2022. It was the first time this conference about seafloor processes was held and it brought together 133 participants. As this conference is about the marine environment, I found almost all presentations and posters interesting. All people I talked to seemed to enjoy the conference and it was already discussed that this conference should take place again in 2-4 years.

I gave a 12-minute talk during the Oceanography Session about the formation of alongslope current controlled sedimentary deposits (contourite drifts). I enjoyed giving the presentation in person, rather than an online presentation or having a poster, as I believe it made it easier to have a good discussion about it afterwards. Participants who could not attend the conference in person gave a pre-recorded video to the conference organisers. Most participants gave a 12-minute talk and only approximately 15 participants had a poster. Several talks focused on processes in canyons and channels, fluid escape from the seafloor, submarine slope failure and coast to shelf processes. I found it interesting to learn not only more about alongslope process, which is the primary focus of my work, but also learn more about other processes, because I find it relevant to have a good understanding of all processes that can occur at or near the seafloor to interpret the data as good as possible. There was also a method session about new developments in mapping of the seafloor and the sub-seafloor. At the end of the conference, we had a well-attended half day geomorphology mapping workshop with long discussions. I found it very interesting to discuss about the nomenclature and to better understand other opinions about the classification.

Henriette in front of a big screen that shows the first slide of her presentation — Henriette giving her talk at the conference

group photo of the conference participants

It was a hybrid conference, but the large majority attended the conference in person. This made it easy to talk to other researchers during the coffee breaks and lunch. As many participants use similar methods as I do, this includes seismic reflection data and multibeam bathymetry, it was also possible to look in more detail on their datasets, which helped me with my almost ready to be submitted manuscript. During the breaks, I also learned more about possibilities for future positions, which I believe would have been almost impossible during an online conference. Thus, I am very happy for the financial support from GLOMAR that allowed me to attend this conference in person.