Unraveling the sediment routing systems evolution of the south Pyrenean foreland basin during the lower to middle Paleogene period.

Orogenesis plays a crucial role in creating, modifying, and disrupting sediment routing fairways. Reconstructing past source to sink systems is a critical step to unravel the geological history, mandatory to disentangle tectonic and climatic forcings, and to understand the perturbations that affected the overall system. The Paleocene-Eocene period is a debated early stage of the early Pyrenean orogeny, characterized by the piggy-back style tectonic partitioning of sub-basins as the deformation front propagates towards the southern foreland. An important issue is to understand how sedimentary systems reacted and reorganized in response to this dynamic scenario. and whether the stratigraphic and sediment provenance results align with the envisioned scenario. In this paper we aim at contributing to the paleogeographic, sedimentologic and tectono-sedimentary evolution of the South-Pyrenean foreland basin by reviewing the chronostratigraphic framework of the basin infill in its south-central sector (the Ager sub-basin in the Serres Marginals thrust sheet). We built five new magnetostratigraphic sections, which together encompass most of the Paleogene record, aimed to best reconcile magnetostratigraphic data with the defined biostratigraphic framework of the region including marine Shallow Benthic Zones (SBZ biozones) and continental mammalian localities (MP levels). Detailed trends in subsidence show the development and evolution of the foreland depozones, from forebulge to foredeep and wedge-top setting, relative to the successive emplacement of the Montsec and Serres Marginals thrust sheets. A correlation with the eastern portion of the foreland basin (Lower-Middle Pedraforca and Cadí Thrust Sheets) and adjacent northern Graus-Tremp basin (Montsec Thrust Sheet) was feasible and seeks to contribute to the tectono-sedimentary evolution of the South-Pyrenean foreland in the light of a source to sink approach. Our proposal includes a new paleogeographic evolution of the area in a series of paleogeographic maps from Late Thanetian to Late Cuisian times. • A Tectonosedimentary and paleogeographic evolution of the South Pyrenean foreland from Palaeocene to Lutetian times. • Pyrenean sourced sedimentary systems were routed from the eastern Pyrenees on the upper thrust sheets at the Eocene period. • Post PETM sea-level rise at 55.5 My (Ilerdian marine flooding) contributed to a reorganization in the sediment routing systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]