Palaeohydrology and Fluvial Intermittency in the Eocene Hothouse: Castissent Formation, Southern Pyrenees

River discharge patterns are sensitive to changing precipitation as a result of evolving climates. In stratigraphy, the intermittency factor (I_f) of ancient rivers can help illuminate landscape dynamics in the past. The I_f is recorded in the geologic archive as the ratio of average transport rates (from long-term records of water or sediment flux) versus instantaneous maximum transport capacities if they were to be sustained over the same period, and applying intermittency calculations to stratigraphy can reveal how rivers and landscapes recorded and responded to external tectono-climatic forcings. Here we explore the Lower Eocene Castissent Formation of the Southern Pyrenees, Spain, a strongly progradational fluvio-deltaic succession deposited during the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (EECO), an intense warm period analogous to potential future climate scenarios. We first reconstruct the depositional volumes of the Castissent Formation in the Tremp-Graus Basin and its equivalent marine successions in the Ainsa and Jaca Basins. We then compare these to estimates of instantaneous water and sediment fluxes using field-based quantitative palaeohydrology approaches.  From these reconstructions, we derive fluvial intermittency factors which we compare to river data for a range of climate conditions. Further, we present detailed reconstructions of morphodynamics in these lower Eocene rivers during the EECO. These results add to growing understanding of intermittency in the geologic past, and reveal the sensitivity of rivers and landscapes to climate forcing in a warm world analogue.