An Attractive Blue Diopside from Sissone Valley, Western Alps, Italy

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This article is of no scientific innovative content, it may be of interest fpr mineral colectors or cultural heritage. Most of the data are common knowledge and do not offer any new scientific approaches, it might be a good examination work (master degree or perhaps doctoral degree) but is not worth in the actual status for publication in a scientific journal. Perhaps there are some contents worth for mineral collectors, gemmologists ore artifical working gruops. The data are perhaps worth to be published, but in a essentially more comprehensive and relieable kind. It is a mixture of local mineralogy and geology, measured data on some minerals, having some aspects of internationalizaiton by trying to give some ideas on other  - non related - deposits and mineralisations etc. etc...

I end with Goethe (1808, Faust): 

Whoever brings a lot will bring something to some; and everyone leaves the house satisfied (Goethe, J.W., 1808, in „Faust”)

and do not reccomend a publication in this form, a great deal of work has to be done for making publishable science im mineralogy.

Author Response

Dear reviewer

I'll send you the new version of the work on "blue diopside from Sissone Valley".

Thank you very much for your help

Best regards

the authors

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The draft manuscript, entitled “An attractive Blue Diopside from Sissone Valley, Western Alps, Italy”, minerals-1261934, “written by Franca Caucia*, Maurizio Scacchetti, Luigi Marinoni, Mattia Gilio, Antonio Langone, Omar Bartoli, Marco Vanotti, Ivano Foianini”, and Submitted to sections: “Crystallography and Physical Chemistry of Minerals & Nanominerals, Gems and Gem Minerals” has just been reviewed. So, my opinions and my expectations from the article are follows;

1.) Title of the paper is suitable; however, it would have been nicer to add a title on gemological properties.

2.) The section Abstract of the paper is It is sufficient and quite explanatory.

3.) This study contains data that will fill an important gap in gemological terms. Because diopside gem materials are found in various parts of the world. Therefore, illuminating the afore mentioned color harmony will satisfy an important curiosity.

4.) It is seen that the topic is certainly of interest, and chemical-mineralogical analyses of the diopside samples would provide useful information for the gemological and related scientific community.

5.) In the case of objectives, the essentials of the mineralogical and crystallographic are sound.

6.) Finally, the study has been approved by me and strongly recommend draft manuscript for publication without revisions.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer

we thank you very much for the help you given us for our work on "diopside blue from Sissone valley".

Best regards

the authors

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The topic is very interesting and is suitable for publication in Minerals. The manuscript must be, however, subjected to many essential changes, and can not be accepted for publication without major revisions. The English is rather poor and there is some confusion in the use of geological terms (see comments in the annotated manuscript). Some very necessary analyses and interpretations were not done, in spite of the inciting topic and of the abundance of analytical material. Even if my native tongue is Latin, I had some problems with the comprehension of some phrases, because they conserve the Italian topic. Supplementary revision by a native English speaker will substantially increase the brevity and the clarity of the sentences. I also think that, as much of the text use the American English, the sentences using UK English must be modified. Some recommendations, beside these already given in the attached manuscript, are important:

(1) All the personal references on the work done (e.g. “we find that…”we demonstrate” etc.) must be eliminated. Such affirmations are redundant.

(2) Export descriptions in Lines 229-258 in a Table!

(3) Use everywhere the mineral name, and not the group name (e.g., diopside, tremolite and not pyroxene and amphibole!).

(4) Mineral abbreviations must respect the recommendations of Whitney and Evans (2010), e.g., Cal for calcite, Di for diopside, etc. Reference to be used: Whitney, D.L. & Evans, B.W. (2010): Abbreviations for names of rock-forming minerals. Am. Mineral. 95, 185-187. Please verify also in Figure 11 and change the mineral abbreviations, using the same recommendations.

(5) Lines 426 - 436 must be reorganized and shortened.

(6) The gem diopside must be defined in terms of its composition in end-members (e.g., Di 85-98, Jhn 0-5, Hd 0-5), based on the EMPA analyses.

The detailed comments inserted in the manuscript are far to be extensive and can be considered as punctual. 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

we thank you for your help regarding our work on "the blue diopside from Sissone valley". We accepted all your corrections and suggestions.

We hope to receive your comments on the new version of the work soon.

Best regards

The authors

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

The manuscript entitled “An Attractive Blue Diopside from Sissone Valley, Western Alps, Italy” reports the results on a rare blue diopside from Sissone Valley in the Western Alps through standard gemological methods, X-Ray Powder Diffraction, SEM observations, Raman spectrometry, EMPA analyses of major elements and LA-ICP-MS analyses for minor and trace elements. They conclude that the chromophore is mostly given by the presence of traces of V and subordinately of Fe, Mn Cr and Ti. It is well written and organized. The data are of high quantity, and interpretation sounds reasonable. It can be accepted for publication after moderate revision.

• Line 35-37: Diopside also occurs in basic-ultrabasic rocks such as picritic lava (Zhang et al., 2006) and basaltic lava (Zhang et al., 2008).

Zhang, Z.C., Mahoney, J.J., Mao, J.W. and Wang, F.S., 2006. Geochemistry of picritic and associated basalt flows of the western Emeishan flood basalt province, China. Journal of Petrology, 47(10), 1997-2019.

Zhang, Z.C., Mao, J.W., Cai, J.H., Kusky, T., Zhou, G., Yan, S.H. and Zhao, L., 2008. Geochemistry of picrites and associated lavas of a Devonian island arc in the Northern Junggar terrane, Xinjiang (NW China), implications for petrogenesis, arc mantle sources and tectonic setting. Lithos, 105(3-4), 379-395.

2）Figure 2 should be greatly improved. I suggest to label a and b, and add the latitude and longitude. Are these strata Precambrian, Paleozoic, Mesozoic or Cenozoic? Please clarify. In addition, what are the solid circles and triangles?

3) Please change quartzdiorite to quartz diorite throughout the text.

4) The authors should tell the readers the contents of minerals when they describe the petrography of igneous rocks.

5) Line 91: Change acid to felsic.

6) Please show the location of figure3 in Fig. 2.

7) Line 102: Change HT to high temperature.

8) Line 227: add “described” between samples and as.

9) Line 272: Change “crossed polars” to “cross-polarized light”.

10) Line 289: add “,” after serpentine.

11) 433-434: Panzhihua region in China is famous for their hosting several giant V-Ti iron oxide deposits (Zhang et al., 2009). Please show this information.

Zhang, Z.C., Mao, J.W., Saunders, A.D., Ai, Y., Li, Y. and Zhao, L., 2009. Petrogenetic modeling of three mafic-ultramafic layered intrusions in the Emeishan large igneous province, SW China, based on isotopic and bulk chemical constraints. Lithos, 113(3-4)，369-392

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

we thank you very much for the helps you given us for our work on "diopside blu from Sissone Valley".

Best regards

The authors

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

The new version of the manuscript is appropriate for editing. The topic is very interesting and the conclusions are substantiated by a significant number of analyses. Congratulations!