Weathering Processes on Sandstone Painting and Carving Surfaces at Prehistoric Rock Sites in Southern Spain

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Distinguished authors

The text is interesting in the contents but presents many errors, so it is better an overall look from a mother tongue. Not only that, the sentences are in general too long (sometimes more than 5 lines). The authors must  divide them into two or three parts accordingly. (Example lines from 270 to 276).

In Fig1. Careful because the blue colour of X symbols in the legend is not the same as in the maps. 

Line 115: "As the climatic conditions have a very determining role in the development of rock weathering processes". Here I suggest the follows reference: Louis C. Peltier, The geographic cycle in periglacial regions as it is related to climatic geomorphology, Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr. 40 (3) (1950) 214–236.

In the climatic data: Why do the authors indicate averages values of Temperature, rainfall amount and extreme data of wind speeds? Please declare average annual data of wind speed.

Line 131: please add the Koppen reference as following: R. Geiger, Classificação climática de Köppen-Geiger, Creat, Commons Attrib. Alike 3.0 Unported. (1936).

Line 235: If the authors declare the stones are quartzarenites, the max - min percentage of quartz declared (80-90) is not realistic for that kind of stone. At least 95% 

Line 237: How the authors recognize illite and kaolinite in the matrix? They are not recognizable in thin section.

Figure 3. Please replace these pictures with more clear others. It is impossible to see what is present in between the clasts. The space appears completely dark.

Figure 4b: "Small lenticular gypsum crystals within the stromatolite crust". To demonstrate that is gypsum you must add the EDS analysis

Line 336: the chemical formula is wrong

Fig. 5: The photos are beautiful but to demonstrate the chemical composition the EDS analysis must be added in every photos

 

Author Response

We want to show our gratitude to the reviewer. We trust that the paper has been significantly improved by your suggestions and revisions.

The attached document includes the response to the reviewer's suggestions and details the changes made to the manuscript.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript entitled “Weathering processes on sandstone painting and carving surfaces at prehistoric rock sites in southern Spain” describes the analysis of sandstones constituting the host-rock for the prehistoric artwork in the Rock Group of Tajo de las Figuras and Penas de Cabrera (Spain). Through petrological and compositional characteristics, the degree of alteration has been studied. The causes are identified in natural weathering and anthropogenic action.

The authors deal with the topic by proposing sufficient background for a reader with an adequate methodology description and a clear discussion of the results. After careful evaluation of the presented manuscript, I recommend this article for publishing after addressing very minuscule issues.

Here is the list of issues that requires authors attention:

·        Page 7 line 241: it is not clear if the SiO2 content of 93.2-95.6% represents the value expressed in table 1 (96.3-91.53%)

 

·        Fine/minor spell check is required (es page 14 line 449 “resulting from” instead of “resulting of”, line 452 “where organic...” instead of “were organic…”)

Author Response

We want to show our gratitude to the reviewer. We trust that the paper has been significantly improved by your suggestions and revisions.

The attached document includes the response to each of the reviewer's suggestions and details the changes made to the manuscript.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx