Climate and tectonic controls on stratigraphy in the Early Eocene Pyrenean foreland basin: new geochemical constraints

Abstract

On multi-millennial scales, sedimentary systems can be disturbed by external forcings such as tectonic uplift and climate change. These environmental changes affect sediment fluxes and sediment composition from the zone sediments are produced to their deposition zone. Although we have a good understanding of how sedimentary systems react to forcings such as sea-level change, tectonic uplift or global warmings, major challenges remain concerning the record and unravelling of these signals in past sedimentary archives. These archives may hold key information for predictive models concerning actual and future environmental problems. To better understand how tectonic and climatic signals are recorded and are reflected in past sedimentary successions, an Eocene (33-56 Ma) sedimentary system in the south Pyrenean foreland basin was studied during a time-period rich in tectonic and climatic events.