Reply to comments made by Svetlana O. Zorina on ‘Relative bathymetric position of opoka and chalk in the Late Cretaceous European Basin’ by Marcin Machalski and Oksana Malchyk [Cretaceous Research 102 (2019) 30–36

Abstract

Opoka and chalk were widespread facies in the epicontinental Late Cretaceous European Basin. In a commentary to Machalski and Malchyk, 2019, Zorina, 2020 postulates that ‘camouflaged’ pyroclastic material, if present in the chalk or opoka, should be used as a tool in considerations on the relative bathymetric relationships between these deposits. Here, we point out that Zorina, 2020 fails to present any argument in support of her views, and argue that the presence or absence of volcanic ash have nothing to do with the depth of an epicontinental basin. Other flaws in the comment by Zorina, 2020 are also pointed out here, including the lack of references to recent papers on the mineralogy, petrography and geochemistry of the opoka and chalk successions discussed by Machalski and Malchyk, 2019.