Dear authors,

The reviewers noted a number of potential conceptual and methodological improvements that could be made. Furthermore, there seem to be a number of smaller points through the article that could be clarified or expanded upon to help strengthen the arguments.

Because of this, I have recommended major revisions at this stage. I do not feel that there is anything critically wrong with the research, but the large number of 'smaller' issues seems to require some fairly substantive changes overall. I remain confident that the authors will be able to appropriately address these.

Best,

Jon

Thank you for engaging so throughly with the peer review process, and my apologies for the length of time that this has taken, due to circumstances that were sadly beyond our control. Having now throughly reviewed the manuscript and the referee' comments, we will be delighted to publish this work in Geoscience Communication, once a few small edits have been made, as requested by Referee 2. The referee report from Referee 2 contains several suggestions to improve the readability of the paper, please could address all of these and upload a revised manuscript. Once this has been done I will ensure that I expedite the final editorial review.

Thank you again for your continued patience and professionalism, and I look forward to seeing the updated manuscript.

Many Thanks,

Sam

Thank you for making the corrections as suggested, and for being so professional and patient in this whole process. It is greatly appreciated, as is the work that you have done, and your decision to publish your work with Geoscience Communication. We are delighted to be publishing this work, and I look forward to seeing it in print.

Many Thanks,

Sam

I am delighted to approve the signing off of this paper, which has been well received by referees and solidly revised based on their input. My thanks to the handling editor for guiding it through the process during a turbulent time. I'd also like to reiterate our thanks for selecting Geoscience Communications as the home for this article. Kind regards. Iain