Sizing up the sub-Tommotian unconformity in Siberia - Reply

Abstract

The occurrence of an unconformity beneath Tommotian rocks in southeastern Siberia is not controversial. Landing implies that we presented this observation as new, but as one of us (Semikhatov and Serebryakov, 1983) first documented this feature more than a decade ago, we would hardly make such a claim; four references to previous research (two by Landing) attend its first mention in our text. Interpretation of the unconformity is more contentious, and Landing has, indeed, swum against the current for years in asserting that the hiatus beneath the Tommotian stratotype lasted a long time. We regret that in trimming our paper to meet the page limits of Geology we omitted reference to this view. Assertion, however, is one thing; demonstration is another.