Review Reports - Developmental Characteristics and Genesis of Ground Fissures in Wangjiacun, Emei Plateau, Yuncheng Basin, China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The article "Developmental Characteristics and Genesis of Ground Fissures in Wangjiacun, Emei Plateau, Yuncheng Basin, China" by Feida Li et al. the manuscript investigates the formation and genesis of Wangjiacun fissures, their development characteristics, and the genesis pattern of Wangjiacun earth fissures.

The manuscript is interesting. However, it needs to be improved, and its approach needs to be demonstrated with data.

I have some suggestions.

Include a Methodology section describing the methodology and process used for the InSAR data imagery and how the profile information was obtained to develop the model.

· L.139: Please include a section on hydrogeology with more local information on the aquifer.

· L. 162 in the manuscript mentions…” with field research and existing literature.” …to which literature you refer, please mention it

· L.162-164: how do they prove it...did they observe it?

· L. 169: How did you find that it occurs 10m below the surface? Did you observe it, use geophysics, or drill?

· L. 180 in Figure 5, how the profile was obtained. The layers (Loess, paleosol) were observed or interpreted, or it is a hypothetical profile. …..

· L. 229 Figure 7, in the figure on the right, upper box where the stresses in a rotating block are represented, this diagram and the stresses are correct?

· L. 263. Figure 8 (a) shows the scale in meters or millimeters.

· L.276: what about cavities below the pool?

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This manuscript contains some spelling errors; please conduct a thorough check and make the necessary corrections.

Introduction: it is suggested to add an overview of the article's structure at the end of this section to increase the readability of the manuscript.

Lines 42~44: “The Wangjiacun ground fissure is located above the Emei Plateau in the Yuncheng Basin, belonging to a typical and special collapsible loess type ground fissure, which is related to tectonic joints and loess collapsible loess.” Why is this type described as “typical and special”?

Lines 45~68: the review of related studies lacks timeliness. It is recommended that the authors add more recently published related literature.

Line 47: “Foreign scholars believe that faults or pumping a certain factor affects the formation of ground fissures in the basin.” Using a term like “Foreign scholars” in an international journal is inappropriate. It is recommended to revise this expression

Figure 1: it is recommended to add sequence numbers to the subfigures. The format of latitude and longitude in the left figure is XX°, while in the right figure, it is XX°E and XX°N, respectively. It is suggested to standardize the format and font. What is the unit of “elevation” in the legend?

Figure 2: the latitude label “35°00′N” on the left not aligned with the label on the right, and the longitude labels on the top and bottom borders not aligned.

Figure 3: compared to “Figure”, this image is more similar to a 'Table'. It is recommended that the authors change its presentation.

Line 162: “Combined with field research and existing literature...” What is the “existing literature” mentioned here? It is suggested that the authors provide references here.

Lines 171~176: based on the site photos shown in Figures 5(c) (d) (e), the cracks seem more like building cracks than ground fissures. Is this description appropriate? It is suggested to revise either Figure 5 or the text here.

Figure 6: what do the arrows and angles in the top right corner of each subfigure represent? The authors have not explained them.

Figure 7: the longitude suffix in the left subfigure should be changed from “东” to “E”, and the text is too small and blurred, making it difficult to read.

Lines 253~254: “Simultaneously, a two-year InSAR data processing was conducted in the study area from 2017 to 2019...” Since the authors have conducted two years of monitoring using the InSAR method in this area, it is suggested to provide more details about the monitoring and results. Presenting just a deformation map in Figure 8 seems insufficient.

Line 263: “Insar Data processing charts”, the spelling should be “InSAR”.

Line 287: when introducing elements in a equation or formula, there is no need for indentation at the beginning of the line or capitalization of the first letter.

Conclusions: it would be better if the authors could add suggestions for future research and discuss the impact and significance of this study's results in this section.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Moderate editing of English language required

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The safety of buildings in tectonically disturbed areas is a serious challenge for both geologists and builders. The presented research issue indicate significant threats to buildings from ground fissures. Therefore, their identification and location contributes to a better understanding of phenomena occurring on the ground surface. Below are some comments and suggestions:

1. The introduction lacks a literature review regarding model studies and numerical modeling for ground fissures, so it would be necessary to expand and add information that will significantly enrich this part of the article;

2. In the second chapter for Figure 2, please add one more lithological profile, which is separated by the selected horizontal distance - so that the shift of layers by the fault can be observed;

3. Subchapter 3.3 should be expanded primarily in terms of the limit values for which public buildings lose their functionality through the appearance of cracks - in other words, what width a crack must be to qualify a building as at risk of collapse - please refer to the literature, construction standards;

4. In the subsection 4.3, calculation formulas are presented, but numerical values are missing; therefore, calculations should be made for several cases of depth H and h and, above all, the results should be adjusted to real conditions - this is, of course, a verification of the calculation results, which should be performed in future calculations;

5. Conclusions should include two/three sentences relating to the prediction of the occurrence of ground fissures in built-up areas.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I would like to thank the authors for considering my suggestions.´
They improved the paper so it can be accepted in present form.