The present reply will strictly and only focus on the general logic of boron and lithium isotopic studies of clay minerals. Our goal was always and still is to obtain coherent interpretations of the crystal chemical changes reflected in different size fractions of clay separates from volcano-clastic sediments, as records of exchanges with changing fluids commonly occurring in hydrocarbon-bearing basins.

The main reason for studying these light elements is that each substitutes in different crystallographic sites of illite-smectite structures. Thus, when smectite layers recrystallize into illite, the changing fluids are theoretically equilibrated with specific crystallographic sites of the minerals as...

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