Dear Martina Kirilova and co-authors,

The revised version of your manuscript has be reviewed again (see referee report). I have also read your first and second submission and considered your reply to the reviews very carefully. However, I am afraid I have to tell you that the revised version of your paper is not satisfactory.

I fully acknowledge that you have made changes to the manuscript, added a figure (Figure 5), added a co-author (Toru Takeshita), corrected the text and the tables, modified figures, but you have failed to address the most important issues that were raised by both reviewers independently:

(1) You do not show how you can reliably relate the bulk strain of the samples to the strain incurred by the graphite layers - much less to the strain of a natural rock sample.
(2) The influence of grain size on the R2 values cannot be excluded in your case. As a matter of fact, the new Figure 5 clearly shows extremely small grains, a situation where the R2 value are commonly used to determine grain size not crystallinity.

As a consequence, you cannot provide a reasonable strain correction for the Graphite Thermometer, and your most important finding, namely that the Graphite Thermometer does in fact have a problem, is buried under a lot of speculations.

Solid Earth (with an impact factor of 3.4) wants to publish important results. Therefore, rather than rejecting your paper, I suggest that you take one step back and re-write it. Do not just simply fix the text locally. Concentrate on the message that the graphite Raman thermometer is not applicable as-is in deformed rocks. Period. And support this by a careful presentation, analysis and interpretation of the mechanical and spectroscopic data (see suggestions in referee report). It may indeed be a good idea to include the raw mechanical data - as this will be valuable for readers if they want to compare with their own data. Refrain from the "strain correction" and omit additional interpretations concerning the effect of pressure and sliding velocity, deformation mechanism of graphite, etc. - as they are not very well backed by the data and only deflect from the key message. And clean up your terminology.

I am looking forward to what may still become an excellent and important contribution with a high potential for citations,

With best wishes from Basel,

Renée

Dear Martina Kirilova and co-authors.

Thank you very much for the final revision of your manuscript. It is now in excellent shape and ready to go into print.

I would only like to ask you for a few remaining technical corrections (see attachment).

On behalf of the Journal I am happy to have your contribution published.

With best wishes - currently from Boston -

Renée Heilbronner

Topical Editor of Solid Earth

Dear Authors, I'm happy to second the advice from the topical Editor and accept the manuscript for publication in the present form.

Looking forward to handle your next manuscript!

Best regards,

Fabrizio Storti