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Climate Control on Erosion: Evolution of Sediment Flux from Mountainous Catchments during a Global Warming Event, PETM, Southern Pyrenees, Spain
  • +10
  • Marine Prieur,
  • Cecile Robin,
  • Jean Braun,
  • Romain Vaucher,
  • Alexander Charters Whittaker,
  • Rocio Del Pilar Jaimes-Gutierrez,
  • Amanda Lily Wild,
  • Jonah Spike McLeod,
  • Luca Claude Malatesta,
  • Charlotte Fillon,
  • Fritz Schlunegger,
  • Tor Sømme,
  • Sébastien Castelltort
Marine Prieur
Universite de Geneve

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Cecile Robin
University Rennes1
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Jean Braun
German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ)
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Romain Vaucher
University of Geneva
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Alexander Charters Whittaker
Imperial College London
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Rocio Del Pilar Jaimes-Gutierrez
University of Geneva
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Amanda Lily Wild
Helmholtz Center Potsdam, GFZ
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Jonah Spike McLeod
Imperial College London
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Luca Claude Malatesta
German Research Centre for Geosciences
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Charlotte Fillon
TotalEnergies S.E
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Fritz Schlunegger
University of Bern
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Tor Sømme
Equinor
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Sébastien Castelltort
Université de Genève
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Abstract

Extreme hydroclimates impact sediment fluxes from mountainous catchments to the oceans. A challenge is to reconstruct paleo-sedimentary fluxes to assess the sensitivity of erosion in mountainous catchments to environmental perturbations such as climate and tectonics. Here, we study the response of catchments to the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM, ~56 Ma) using sedimentary archives and numerical modeling. In the Tremp Basin (Southern Pyrenees, Spain), our results demonstrate that depositional volumetric rates of siliciclastic sediments increased two-fold during the PETM. The BQART and Stream Power Law models indicate that changes in mean annual temperature and precipitation explain only 20% of the flux increase. This comparison between field data and model predictions suggests that other conditions, such as extreme rainfall events and landslides, may have been crucial sediment generation processes during the PETM. This is consistent with predictions of enhanced climate variability in a warmer world, leading to significant sediment flushing.