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Crustal extension in the overriding plate at the Aegean subduction zone, related to the rollback of the subducting African slab in the Miocene, resulted in a detachment fault separating high-pressure/low-temperature (HP-LT) metamorphic lower from non-metamorphic upper tectonic units on Crete. In western Crete, detachment faulting at deeper crustal levels was accompanied by structural disintegration of the hangingwall leading to the formation of half-graben-type sedimentary basins filled by alluvial fan and fan-delta deposits. The coarse-grained clastic sediments in these half-grabens are exclusively derived from the non-metamorphic units atop the detachment fault. Being in direct tectonic contact with HP-LT metamorphic rocks of the lower tectonic units today, the basins must have formed in the period between c. 20 and 15 Ma, prior to the exposure of the HP-LT metamorphic rocks at the surface, and juxtaposed with the latter during ongoing deformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents reply to comment on the article "Tectono-sedimentary evolution of lower to middle Miocene half-graben basins related to an extensional detachment fault." The author says they do not concur with the view expressed in the comment which question the validity of the tectono-sedimentary model proposed by the author M. Seidel. He states that Crete, Greece represents a narrow horst structure developed in the forearc of the active Hellenic subduction zone.