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Abstract: The depositional lithofacies and fabrics of Messinian evaporites have been studied to evaluate the palaeodepth of water body in Nijar Basin, SE Spain. The Nijar Messinian strata consist of three formations: Abad marls, Yesares evaporites, and Feos rocks. Gypsum deposits dominate the Yesares Formation and the basal Feos Formation. Six gypsum lithofacies have been identified including coarse twinned selenite, grass-like selenite, hemiradial to radial selenite, turbidite selenite in the Yesares Formation; and gypsum conglomerate, laminated gypsum, and hemiradial to radial selenite in the Feos Formation. The size of Yesares selenites decreases upward while carbonate content and trace-element abundance increase in each selenite bed and the whole formation, suggesting a shallowing-up sequence. These gypsum lithofacies were deposited in subaqueous environments commonly at 10–30 m and occasionally up to 100 m or deeper for the turbiditic selenites based on the interpretations of gypsum fabrics, marl intervals, basin configuration, and geochemistry. The sea level of Nijar Basin experienced two major drops with a magnitude of ∼40 m before and after the deposition of Yesares evaporites. However, the basin was never desiccated during the evaporite deposition and the change of sea level for the alternative deposition of gypsum beds and marl intervals was commonly around 50–80 m, probably resulting from the glacio-eustacy fluctuations. Feos gypsum reflects another evaporative event and is correlated to the “Upper Evaporite” while the Yesares selenite is correlated to the “Lower Evaporite” based on the interpretations of lithofacies, geochemistry, and sealevel change. As seawater in Nijar Basin was continuously supplied by the central Mediterranean basins and remained in subaqueous conditions during the Messinian salinity crisis, therefore, the desiccation theory needs to be reexamined. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Messinian evaporites in Nijar Basin, southeastern Spain are composed of coarse-crystalline Yesares selenites and Feos laminated fine-crystalline gypsum. These primary Yesares selenites, Feos gypsum, and secondary vein gypsum were analyzed for trace elements (Na, Mg, and Sr) in order to understand gypsum origin. Trace-element concentrations from the three types of gypsum differ significantly. The consistency of the Yesares data with natural marine and modeled marine results suggests that Yesares selenites were deposited from marine-dominated environments. Within the entire Yesares Formation or within one single-gypsum bed, Sr, Mg, and Na concentrations increase upward while crystal size decreases, probably indicating an increase of brine concentration as Yesares selenites were accumulating.The Sr, Na, and Mg concentrations from the Feos gypsum are partially overlapped with, but also significantly higher than those of the Yesares selenites. These Feos data are inconsistent with natural marine and modeled marine data. One interpretation for the inconsistency is that diagenetic alteration occurred to primary marine Feos gypsum. An alternative scenario is that the Feos gypsum was deposited from mixed nonmarine fluids with marine brine during the late Messinian. The latter interpretation is consistent with the stratigraphic, sedimentary, and O, S, and Sr isotopic data. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Late Miocene platform carbonates from Nijar, Spain, have been extensively dolomitized. Limestones are present in the most landward parts of the platform, in stratigraphically lower units and topographically highest outcrops, suggesting that dolomitizing fluids were derived from the adjacent Nijar Basin. The dolomite crystals range from <10 to ≈100 μm existing as both replacements and cements. Na, Cl and SO4 concentrations in the dolomites range from 200 to 1700 p.p.m., 250–650 p.p.m., and 600–7000 p.p.m., respectively, comparable with other Tertiary and modern brine dolomite values, and also overlapping values from mixing-zone dolomites. Sr concentrations range between 50 and 300 p.p.m., and the molar Sr/Ca ratios of dolomitizing fluids are estimated to range between 7× seawater brine to freshwater ratios. The δ18O and δ13C of the dolomites range from -1·0 to +4·2‰ PDB, and -4·0 to +2·0‰ PDB, respectively. 87Sr/86Sr values (0·70899–0·70928) of the dolomites range from late Miocene seawater to values greater than modern seawater. Mixtures of freshwater with seawater and evaporative brines probably precipitated the Nijar dolomites. Modelled covariations of molar Sr/Ca vs. δ18O and Na/Ca vs. δ18O from these mixtures are consistent with those of the proposed Nijar dolomitizing fluids. Complete or partial dolomite recrystallization is ruled out by well preserved CL zoning, nonstoichiometry and quantitative water–rock interaction modelling of covariations of Na vs. Sr and δ18O vs. δ13C. The possibility of multiple dolomitization events induced by evaporative brines, seawater and freshwater, respectively, is consistent with mineral-mineral mixing modelling. The basin-derived dolomitizing brines probably mixed with freshwater in the Nijar Basin or... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Heritage speakers acquire their native language from home use in their early childhood. As the native language is typically a minority language in the society, these individuals receive their formal education in the majority language and eventually develop greater competency with the majority than their native language. To date, there have not been specific research attempts to understand word recognition by heritage speakers. It is not clear if and to what degree we may infer from evidence based on bilingual listeners in general., Purpose: This preliminary study investigated how heritage speakers of Spanish perform on an English word recognition test and analyzed their phoneme errors., Research Design: A prospective, cross-sectional, observational design was employed., Study Sample: Twelve normal-hearing adult Spanish heritage speakers (four men, eight women, 20-38 yr old) participated in the study. Their language background was obtained through the Language Experience and Proficiency Questionnaire. Nine English monolingual listeners (three men, six women, 20-41 yr old) were also included for comparison purposes., Data Collection and Analysis: Listeners were presented with 200 Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 words in quiet. They repeated each word orally and in writing. Their responses were scored by word, word-initial consonant, vowel, and word-final consonant. Performance was compared between groups with Student's t test or analysis of variance. Group-specific error patterns were primarily descriptive, but intergroup comparisons were made using 95% or 99% confidence intervals for proportional data., Results: The two groups of listeners yielded comparable scores when their responses were examined by word, vowel, and final consonant. However, heritage speakers of Spanish misidentified significantly more word-initial consonants and had significantly more difficulty with initial /p, b, h/ than their monolingual peers. The two groups yielded similar patterns for vowel and word-final consonants, but heritage speakers made significantly fewer errors with /e/ and more errors with word-final /p, k/., Conclusions: Data reported in the present study lead to a twofold conclusion. On the one hand, normal-hearing heritage speakers of Spanish may misidentify English phonemes in patterns different from those of English monolingual listeners. Not all phoneme errors can be readily understood by comparing Spanish and English phonology, suggesting that Spanish heritage speakers differ in performance from other Spanish-English bilingual listeners. On the other hand, the absolute number of errors and the error pattern of most phonemes were comparable between English monolingual listeners and Spanish heritage speakers, suggesting that audiologists may assess word recognition in quiet in the same way for these two groups of listeners, if diagnosis is based on words, not phonemes., (American Academy of Audiology)