FN Archimer Export Format PT J TI Reply to comment on the article “Propagation of a lithospheric tear fault (STEP) through the western boundary of the Calabrian accretionary wedge offshore eastern Sicily (Southern Italy)” by Gallais et al., 2013 Tectonophysics BT AF GALLAIS, Flora GRAINDORGE, David GUTSCHER, Marc-Andre AS 1:1;2:2,3;3:2,3; FF 1:PDG-REM-GM-LGG;2:;3:; C1 Ifremer, Ctr Brest, Lab Geodynam & Geophys, F-29280 Plouzane, France. Univ Europeenne Bretagne, Rennes, France. Univ Brest, CNR5, Inst Univ Europeen Mer, UMR 6538 Domaines Ocean, F-29280 Plouzane, France. C2 IFREMER, FRANCE UNIV RENNES, FRANCE UBO, FRANCE SI BREST SE PDG-REM-GM-LGG UBO IN WOS Ifremer jusqu'en 2018 copubli-france copubli-univ-france IF 2.872 TC 3 UR https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00160/27133/25331.pdf LA English DT Article DE ;Subduction zones;Lithospheric fault;Slab roll-back;Active deformation;Multichannel seismic profiles;Slab tear AB In his Comment, A. Argnani argues that our interpretation of the STEP fault (named STEP-1 fault, in the Comment) is poorly constrained by the seismic data used in Gallais et al. (2013), and he particularly disagrees with our identification north of the Alfeo Seamount. A. Argnani is convinced that the tear fault is expressed by a belt of surface deformation, close to the Malta Escarpment. However, none of the seismic images published by A. Argnani show a crustal scale structure that could be associated with the presence at depth of a lithospheric tear. In that paper we documented the presence of a sub-vertical crustal scale fault, located 50 km east of the Malta Escarpment, with a northward increasing vertical offset (Gallais et al., 2013). The track of this fault towards the north could be extended following the position the fault “F6”, mapped 20 km east of the Malta Escarpment by Nicolich et al. (2000). In fact these authors reported an offset of the crust associated with activity the fault “F6”, suggesting the lithospheric tear at depth at the edge of the Ionian slab is distinct from the Malta Escarpment. PY 2014 PD JAN SO Tectonophysics SN 0040-1951 PU Elsevier Science Bv VL 610 UT 000331156400016 BP 200 EP 203 DI 10.1016/j.tecto.2013.10.012 ID 27133 ER EF