Next Article in Journal
An Overview of Nanofiltration and Nanoadsorption Technologies to Emerging Pollutants Treatment
Previous Article in Journal
Rethinking Academic Conferences in the Age of Pandemic
 
 
Article
Peer-Review Record

Development of Deformation Bands and Deformation Induced Weathering in a Forearc Coal-Bearing Paleogene Fold Belt, Northern Japan

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(16), 8348; https://doi.org/10.3390/app12168348
by Hiromi Kaji 1 and Toru Takeshita 2,*
Reviewer 1: Anonymous
Reviewer 2:
Reviewer 3:
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(16), 8348; https://doi.org/10.3390/app12168348
Submission received: 25 July 2022 / Revised: 16 August 2022 / Accepted: 18 August 2022 / Published: 21 August 2022
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applied Structural Geology and Tectonics)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

4. Results.

Figures Captions Figure 1, Figure 2 annotations a, b, c. Please standardize and use lowercase letters under the particular Figures 1, 2.

Conclusions. 

Please do not specify the points in Conclusions, for example. 1, 2, 3, etc. this is unneccessary in the relatively short summary of the text of the text of reviewed manuscript.

Author Response

Reviewer #1:

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

  1. Results.

 

Figures Captions Figure 1, Figure 2 annotations a, b, c. Please standardize and use lowercase letters under the particular Figures 1, 2.

I do not really understand what the reviewer meant by the standardization, and where I should use lowercase letters in the figure captions.

 

Conclusions.

 

Please do not specify the points in Conclusions, for example. 1, 2, 3, etc. this is unneccessary in the relatively short summary of the text of the text of reviewed manuscript.

The reviewer probably suggested us not to make the itemized conclusions, but the ones continuously written without (1), (2), (3) and others. However, we just prefer these itemized conclusions, which are all new and important.

 

 

Reviewer 2 Report

I have marked some remarks in the PDF file.

I suggest to emphasize the practical importance of this study (e. g. evaluation of reservoir properties) in introduction and conclusions.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Reviewer #2:

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I have marked some remarks in the PDF file.

Most of the corrections in the annotated manuscript (PDF files) were incorporated in the revised manuscript. However, although the reviewer commented that “the Shitakara and Shakubetsu Formations” must be replace with “the Shitakara and Shakubetsu formations”, I would think that they must begin with capital letters because they are the particular formations. Similarly, although the reviewer requested us to change “the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic sandstones” to “the late Triassic to early Jurassic sandstones”, I think that the expressions are correct. However, in this case, “the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic sandstones” must be further changed to “the Upper Triassic to Lower Jurassic sandstones”.

 

I suggest to emphasize the practical importance of this study (e. g. evaluation of reservoir properties) in introduction and conclusions.

We have worked on the causes of landslides, where the formation of clay minerals is very important reducing the strength and permeability of rocks. Although we stated this practical importance of the original manuscript, we should more emphasize this aspect and more clearly explain it in the revised manuscript, as commented by the reviewer. So, in the introduction, we added the following sentences.

Further, once a significant amount of clay minerals forms at fracture interfaces in rocks, not only the frictional strength is significantly reduced (e.g. the internal coefficient of friction is 0.1 for smectite, typical authigenic clay minerals formed by weathering), but also the permeability is decreased by the swelling property of such clay minerals. Therefore, landslide could be triggered by a large amount of rainfall due to the buildup of pore fluid pressure as well as low frictional strength in such weathered rocks.

Also, in the conclusions, we modified the present sentence stating the practical importance of this study to “Since the deformation induced weathering could have significantly reduced the internal friction and permeability of rocks in the study area, the landslide was probably triggered by a heavy rainfall in such weathered rocks”.

 

Reviewer 3 Report

The article is interesting, devoted to the physical and chemical transformation of terrigenous rocks in the course of folded deformations. Modern methods of expeditionary, structural and mineralogical studies were used, which made it possible to obtain reasonable and interesting conclusions.

But there are also disadvantages. The article is hard to read.

The illustrations are bulky, especially 3 and 5 - they are on several pages. It is necessary to reformat the illustrations, possibly reduce, so that the illustration and caption would be placed on 1 page.

Very cumbersome text captions under the illustrations - they are very poorly perceived.

Table 3 is also too large and can be shortened by showing average compositions with deviations or maximum and minimum contents of each mineral. Various coefficients can be removed from this table and given in the text.

At the same time, in Table 3, the chemical composition of pyrite is displayed in oxides, this is unacceptable, its composition must be shown in elements - Fe, S, etc., since there is no oxygen in its composition. Since it is hardly worth giving a table for one analysis, its rather simple composition can be written directly in the text.

Author Response

Reviewer #3:

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The article is interesting, devoted to the physical and chemical transformation of terrigenous rocks in the course of folded deformations. Modern methods of expeditionary, structural and mineralogical studies were used, which made it possible to obtain reasonable and interesting conclusions.

Many thanks to the comments.

 

But there are also disadvantages. The article is hard to read.

I am sorry for this. I again revised the manuscript, so that it will become easier to read with many short simple sentences.

 

The illustrations are bulky, especially 3 and 5 - they are on several pages. It is necessary to reformat the illustrations, possibly reduce, so that the illustration and caption would be placed on 1 page.

We reduced and rearranged Figures 3 and 5, and captions, so that each of them will be placed on 1 page.

 

Very cumbersome text captions under the illustrations - they are very poorly perceived.

We revised the figure captions, so that they will be clearly understood.

 

Table 3 is also too large and can be shortened by showing average compositions with deviations or maximum and minimum contents of each mineral. Various coefficients can be removed from this table and given in the text.

Although Table 3 is a bit large, it could be OK with this size, because the numerals are easily read. Also, since the number of measurements for each mineral is small, we cannot make any statistical analysis, calculating the average and standard deviations for these mineral compositions. Now, we have moved the coefficient (XMg) and remark on “-” to the table captions.

 

At the same time, in Table 3, the chemical composition of pyrite is displayed in oxides, this is unacceptable, its composition must be shown in elements - Fe, S, etc., since there is no oxygen in its composition. Since it is hardly worth giving a table for one analysis, its rather simple composition can be written directly in the text.

As commented by the reviewer, we have now written the calculated molar number (mole ratio) of Fe and S in pyrite based on the SEM-EDS analysis directly in the text.

 

Back to TopTop