Reply to Jones and Crowe: Correcting mistaken views of sedimentary geology, Mn-oxidation rates, and molecular clocks

Jones and Crowe (1) raise issues already addressed in our article (2) based on an inaccurate grasp of the literature and several logical misconceptions. The authors suggest that inputs we chose in our kinetic calculations are unsuitable because we used values only from the Black Sea. As described, we made an extremely conservative estimate because the Black Sea is the most rapid Mn-oxidizing environment in the literature. Other locations have oxidation rates orders-of-magnitude lower (3). Jones and Crowe also propose sedimentation rates in our Mn-oxidation calculations were too high, citing a reference for incorrect rocks: different lithologies, environments, process sedimentology, geodynamic setting, and age.