Review of 'The closure of the Vardar ocean (the western domain of the northern Neotethys) from early Middle Jurassic to Paleocene time, based on surface geology of eastern Pelagonia and the Vardar zone, biostratigraphy, and seismic-tomographic images of the mantle below the Central Hellenides'

Title: The closure of the Vardar ocean (the western domain of the northern Neotethys) from early Middle Jurassic to Paleocene time, based on surface geology of eastern Pelagonia and the Vardar zone, biostratigraphy, and seismic-tomographic images of the mantle below the Central Hellenides

Authors: Rudolph Scherreiks, Marcelle BouDagher-Fadel

1. Title: suggested a more short title: The closure of the Vardar ocean from Middle Jurassic to Paleocene, based on surface geology, biostratigraphy, and seismic-tomographic images.
2. Lines 622679, Lines15-17, why seismic tomographic images of the mantle can indicate the width of over 3000 km of the Vardar ocean? This is not clearly indicated in the main text. Line 467, how you get 1700 km-wide eastern Vardar ocean subducted beneath the Vardar zone? Also, how sure the “perturbations beneath Hellenides as sunken Vardar ocean lithosphere which indicate two episodes of subduction”? Besides this interpretation, alternative models?
3. Lines 411-458 Geochemistry. The methods for major, trace and REE elements of the volcanic rocks should be given in detail, before showing the data and interpretation.
4. Major deformations. You should give key evidences to show the occurrences of the D1-D3 deformation.
5. Line 172, Line 562 intra-oceanic subduction zone. What’s kind of geological evidences to support there was an intra-oceanic subduction zone?
6. Line 591, Lines 598-600 “These limestones are in the west Almopias sub-zone and may have been deposited near or on the accretionary wedge of the forearc basin”. Can you confirm this relationship by using field photos? It is quite abnormal that carbonate platform happened in the forearc setting.
7. There are numerous small errors in writing, such as: line 121, the year of the Bernoulli et al. is missing; the using of Upper/Lower or Late/Early Cretaceous.