X Welcome  X  Bienvenue X  Bonjour  X  Welcome  X  Bienvenue  X

Sophie Warny, Ph.D. Research Associate Palynology and Paleoceanography LSU Department of Geology and Geophysics Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex, Room 109 Baton Rouge, LA 70803 E-mail: sophie@geol.lsu.edu

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
 

EDUCATION	Certification, LA State Trainer - HRD (October, 2000) Louisiana State University and Division of Administration Ph. D., Geology (February, 1999) Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium Bachelor of Science, Oceanography (June, 1993) University of Liege, Belgium Bachelor of Science, Geology (September, 1992) Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE	Postdoctoral Research Associate (12/00 - present) Department of Geology and Geophysics, LSU, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA Research objective: A Northern Gulf of Mexico experiment to study the influence of base-level and climate change on continental margin stratigraphy and deposition. Geologist (1999 - 2000) Department of Environmental Quality, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA Responsibilities: Hazardous Waste Permit Application supervision. Assistant Lecturer (09/93 - 01/98) Department of Geology, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium Responsibilities: laboratories and lectures in micro-/macro-paleontology and physical geology. Sedimentologic and stratigraphic field trip in England.  This five-year experience gave the applicant strong expertise in multiple geological fields. While holding this position, the applicant designed and achieved each goal of her doctorate research project.  Research Associate (10/96 - 12/96) Department of Geology - Geotop, University du Quebec, Montreal, Canada Research activities: The applicant received a grant to perform a unique experiment: the application of the transfer function statistical method to analyze Mio-Pliocene sediments and reconstruct paleo-depths and -marine depositional conditions for the Gibraltar Strait Area. Research Associate (10/95 - 12/95) Department of Geology and Geophysics, CENEX, LSU, Baton Rouge, Louisiana Research activities: Analysis of ecological significance of dinoflagellate fossils Visiting Student (12/94 - 01/95) Department of Geology and Geophysics, CENEX, LSU, Baton Rouge, Louisiana Research activities: Discussion of the discovery of new fossils of dinoflagellate in the applicant’s material.  This visit led to peer-review publication (Warny and Wrenn, 1997). Research Contract (10/94 - 12/94) Services Federaux des Affaires Scientifiques, Techniques et Culturelles Research objectives: Short Climatic Events and Pollen Analysis, this research led to a peer-review publication (Seret et al., 1996). Research Associate (12/93 & 11/94) Department of Palynology, University of Sciences, Montpellier, France Details: After one month training in Palynology, the applicant was offered the opportunity to start a Ph.D. in collaboration with Dr. Jean-Pierre Suc from this laboratory and Dr. Richard Benson from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
AWARDS	Travel award: NSF (National Science Foundation) - 2002 Invitation to the "Antarctic: Proposal workshop for new investigators". August 26-27, 2002, Arlington, USA. Dissertation Award: "Felicitations du Jury" - 1999 highest honor bestowed by dissertation-jury members in Belgium for the recognition of the dissertation topic, research, manuscript and presentation. Student Award: American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists - 1996 for the originality and preliminary dissertation results. Travel award: FNRS (Fond National de la Recherche Scientifique: Belgian science funding agency) - 1996  to establish working in collaboration with Dr. Anne de Vernal, Geotop, Montreal.
FUNDING	$15,000 CONOCO, Inc. Houston, Texas  2001/2002  LSU  FUNDED $15,000 UNOCAL  Houston, Texas  2001/2002  collaboration w/ RICE Univ. FUNDED $30,000 AAUW Washington, D.C.  2002/2003  NOT FUNDED $15,000 CONOCO, Inc.  Houston, Texas  2002/2003 LSU  Decision Summer 2002 $91,960 NSF Washington, D.C. 2003/2004  LSU  Decision Fall 2002
REFEREED  PUBLICATIONS	Bart, P.J. and Warny, S. (2001). An Evaluation of the Messinian Salinity Crisis: implications of new palynological results on the interpretation of late Miocene Antarctic Ice Sheet evolution.  ANTOSTRAT Symposium Program and Abstracts Volume, Sicily, Italy. Hilgen, F.J., Krijgsman, W., Iaccarino, S. and Warny, S. (2000) The Neogene of the Bou Regreg valley.  Field Trips A and B Guidebook, XIth Congress of Regional Committee on Mediterranean Neogene Stratigraphy, Fes (Morocco): p. 5-15. Warny, S. (1996) Upper Neogene Dinoflagellate Cyst Ecostratigraphy: a core section of the Atlantic coast of Morocco.  The American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists, IX IPC Program and Abstracts Volume, Houston, Texas.  Brodkom, F., Verkaeren, J., Jardon, B. and Warny, S. (1996) Facteurs de controle des parageneses minerales de filons dans la province Sn-Ag bolivienne: l'exemple du cadre geodynamique des gisements de Toropalca (Potosi), 16eme reunion des Sciences de la Terre, Orleans, Soc. geol. France edit., Paris: p. 15-26. Warny, S. and Wrenn, J.H. (1997) New species of Dinoflagellate cysts from the Miocene-Pliocene boundary on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, in Paleaobotany and Palynology, p. 29-35. Seret G., Burjachs F., Cornet C., Dricot E., Francus P., Giralt S., Hilgers B., Julia R., Leroy S., Mergeai I., Roca J., Wansard G. &  Warny S., (1996) Abrupt climate fluctuations not directly linked to astronomical causes and attributed to postglacial reorganization of atmospheric and oceanic circulation. OSTC final report, Brussels, 100 p. Brodkom, F. and Warny, S. (1993) Analyses Paragenetiques et Structurales des Gisements de San Matias et Capillani (Bolivie), Bulletin de la Societe Belge de Geologie, 12 p.
PUBLICATIONS  SUBMITTED OR IN PREPARATION	Warny, S., Bart, P.J. and Suc, J.-P.. Climatic, tectonic and glacioeustatic influences on the Messinian Salinity Crisis: salt for thought.  Submitted to Geology. Warny, S. and J.H. Wrenn. Upper Neogene dinoflagellate cyst ecostratigraphy of the Atlantic coast of Morocco. Submitted to Micropaleontology. Warny, S. and de Vernal, A. (in prep.) Late Miocene-early Pliocene paleoceanography of the Atlantic margin off Morocco: new palynological evidences for the understanding of the Mediterranean Salinity Crisis through transfer function. Warny, S. (in prep.) Dinopterygium marrocodinium, a new species of dinoflagellate cyst from Miocene sections of the Atlantic coast of Morocco and Spain.
PERSONAL	Language skills     French: native language    English: fluent    Dutch: basic Hobbies   playing piano and saxophone, traveling and reading Nationality  Belgian Permanent residence USA  And I have two wonderful daughters, Manon and Zoe.

Mio-Pliocene palynology of the Gibraltar Arc: A new perspective on the Messinian Salinity Crisis
 

ABSTRACT

Previous models developed to explain the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) have relied on sequences deposited in the Mediterranean Basin which are inherently discontinuous.  As a result, consensus on the timing, progression and causes of the MSC has not been reached.  To avoid problems associated with gaps in sedimentation that occurred during the periods of desiccation, continuous marine sequences of Miocene to Pliocene age strata have been selected from the two primary paleo-straits of Gibraltar Arc region, on the Atlantic coast of Spain (Carmona composite section) and Morocco (Bou Regreg section of Sale).  A third section in Alboran Sea (Andalousia G1) has been selected to establish correlation to the Mediterranean record of the crisis.

In this study, which is part of a larger ongoing multidisciplinary investigation, continuous marine Neogene sections in the two primary paleo-straits of Gibraltar Arc region and their time-equivalent in the Alboran Sea, were analyzed to: comprehend evolution of connections between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea; define which mechanisms were responsible for the Messinian Salinity Crisis; and establish the sequence of events that led to this crisis, as manifest via palynomorph analysis.

Marine and continental-derived palynomorphs were tabulated and their distributions analyzed to quantify marine versus terrestrial inputs, to provide insight into relative proximity to the coast.  Statistical analysis (Principal Component Analysis), empirical analysis, and transfer-function methods were applied on palynomorph assemblages to establish the main changes in sea-surface conditions, allowing characterization of ecological evolution in the straits.

As a result, palynological data allowed the characterization of ecological modifications in the paleo-straits and in the Alboran Sea during the Neogene (i.e., temperature, salinity and water depth).  Furthermore, the comparison of dinocyst distribution with the oxygen-isotope curves allowed to differentiate time of eustatic versus tectonic control.

These new palynological evidences exclude most previously proposed models and strongly support a recent scenario inferred notably from new paleomagnetic data (Clauzon et al., 1996), stating that evaporites from Sicily and those discovered in the deep Mediterranean Basin are diachronous.  Based on the new palynological evidences, it is concluded that the Messinian Mediterranean Salinity Crisis resulted from two steps which were of very different origins and were successive in time.  The first step of the crisis was of eustatic origin, corresponding to global lowering of relative sea level, probably associated with major expansion of ice sheets in Antarctica, at approximately 5.7 Ma.  Palynological results indicate that the second step of the crisis, at approximately 5.6 Ma, is clearly not related to Antarctic glaciations but rather, is completely tectonically controlled.  This second tectonically-controlled restriction on the marine connection resulted in the deposition of basinal evaporites whereas earlier eustatically-controlled restriction resulted in deposition of basin-rimming marginal evaporites in the Mediterranean Basin.

Seismic stratigraphic analysis of Late Wisconsinan shelf-margin depocenters, offshore Mississippi, Alabama and west Florida, establishes synchroneity of depositional episodes at the three sites
 

ABSTRACT

The stratigraphic analysis of three near-surface sites offshore northeastern Gulf of Mexico has been conducted in an attempt to correlate shelf-margin depocenters of possible Late Wisconsinan to Holocene age.  To address this problem, grids of high-frequency seismic reflection data acquired offshore Mississippi, Alabama and West Florida have been investigated.  These data sets have been respectively described by Sydow and Roberts (1994), Sager et al. (1999) and Bart (1998).
The timing of these depositional units have been provided by comparing seismic profiles to lithologic, biostratigraphic and chronostratigraphic data from a 92 m continuous boring (MP303), in the Main Pass area of the outer Mississippi shelf.  The establishment of synchroneity of depositional episodes at the three sites demonstrates that package pro 20 at borehole MP 303 is the equivalent of the Western delta (Sager et al., 1999) and of Unit 2.5 (Bart, 1998).  This is in contradiction with Sager’s hypothesis inferring that the Western delta is the first lobe of the Lagniappe Delta (package pro 10).  These three depocenters were deposited within a lowstand system tract, which culminated during the oxygen-isotope stage 4.  The top of these units, surface 10, is the equivalent of the horizon C of Sager et al.  A regional map of surface 10 based on this new correlation is presented in this paper.  The overlying unit, package pro 10 or the Lagniappe Delta, is inferred to be the time equivalent of the Eastern delta (deposited during oxygen-isotope stage 23) while units 2.4 and 2.1 were deposited in the area offshore west Florida.
During the Holocene transgressive highstand system tract, or oxygen-isotope stage 1, deposition of surficial transgressive sediment took place.  These correspond to the Unit 1.1 of Sydow and Roberts (1994), to the  Unit 5 of Sager et al. (1999) and to the Unit 1 of Bart (1998).