These two weeks, PhDs. Robin Fentimen and Eline Feenstra are attending the ECORD (European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling) summerschool at the MARUM – Centre for Marine Environmental Sciences and IODP Bremen Core Repository, University of Bremen in Germany – for a two-week course on coral mounds and contourites. The course is organised by Prof. Dr. Dierk Hebbeln, graduate dean of the Bremen International Graduate School for Marine Sciences (GLOMAR), Dr. Ursula Röhl, Head of the IODP Bremen Core Repository (BCR) and Prof. Dr. David van Rooij of the Renard Centre of Marine Geology at Ghent University, Belgium.

The course consists out of a full program of lectures by the fields leading experts, visiting the Bremen Core Repository of the IODP (International Ocean Drilling Program), students presenting their PhD topics and participating on a ‘virtual ship’ were they get familiarised with the (technical) work onboard IODP expeditions.

During the course, Eline tells, they get the opportunity to see and study sediment cores that were retrieved of Neogene and Quaternary contourite drift deposits in the North Gulf of Cadiz (expedition 339) and of cold-water coral bearing Challenger mound in the Porcupine Seabight (expedition 307), as well as material of fossil contourites that are of Miocene and Devonian age. Both contourites and mounds provide valuable paleo-archives, though many processes leading to their formation are not yet fully understood.

At last, they are enjoying many social events with all the other PhD students working on similar topics and exploring beautiful Bremen!