Age and depositional environment of the Draa Sfar massive sulfide deposit, Morocco

The Draa Sfar mineralization consists of two main stratabound orebodies, Sidi M’Barek and Tazacourt, located north and south of the Tensift River (“Oued Tessift”), respectively. Each orebody is comprised by at least two massive sulfide lenses. The hosting rocks are predominantly black shales, although minor rhyolitic rocks are also present in the footwall to the southern orebody. Shales, rhyolitic volcanic rocks, and massive sulfides are all included into the Sarhlef Series, which is recognized as one of the main stratigraphic units of the Moroccan Variscan Meseta. Hydrothermal activity related with an anomalous thermal gradient, together with a high sedimentation rate in a tectonically driven pull-apart marine basin, favored the accumulation of organic-rich mud in the deepest parts of the basin and the sedimentary environment suitable for massive sulfide deposition and preservation. This took place by replacement of the hosting unlithified wet mud below the sediment–water interface. Geochemical data suggest a sedimentary environment characterized by oxic water column and anoxic sediment pile with the redox boundary below the sediment–water interface. The low oxygen availability within the sediment pile inhibited oxidation and pyritization of pyrrhotite. Biostratigraphic analysis, based on the palynological content of the hosting black shales, restricts the age of the sulfides to the Asbian substage (mid-Mississippian). This age is consistent with earlier geochronological constraints

Eating and Drinking in Childhood

This chapter describes the development of eating and drinking in typically developing children up to the end of school age. Together with physiological and cognitive development, children’s eating behavior undergoes major evolutions. During the early period when eating is essential to sustain growth, children eat easily and at the onset of complementary feeding discover the foods of their future diet which are marked by distinct tastes, flavors, and textures from the milk they had received before. Then they undergo a period when they may become picky and/or neophobic, which may last until school age. For this reason, eating and drinking will first be described in infancy, before the onset of food neophobia (from birth to 2–3 years), during the preschool years (from 2–3 years to 6 years), and right after this period, in school-aged children (from 7 years until 11 years). The mysteries of (pre)adolescent eating and drinking will not be covered in this chapter. Then, within each section, the following aspects will be covered: sensory capacities, likes and dislikes, attitudes and thinking, and role of the environment, including the family environment