Reply to Comment on “The Late Devonian Variscan suture of the Iberian Massif: A correlation of high-pressure belts in NW and SW Iberia”

Abstract

The existence of a large allochthonous nappe pile emplaced onto the hinterland of the Iberian Massif and covering most of the basement of NW and SW Iberia proposed by Díez Fernández and Arenas has been called into question on the basis of structural, geophysical, and regional data from SW Iberia. The discussion provided here is based on a revision of the fundamentals of the Variscan geology of NW Iberia and on a more detailed presentation of the geology of SW Iberia. Our counterarguments reveal the reasoning of Simancas et al. against the verisimilitude of the large allochthonous pile as inconclusive, incomplete, or erroneous in some cases. Therefore, we maintain that our structural correlation and its implications remain fully valid for the case of the Iberian Massif.