Response to “Reply to the comment on Zafar et al., 2025.”

1. Introduction

The reply by Zafar et al. (2026) to Bhat’s (2025) comment contains several assertions that warrant critical examination against contemporary research in Proto-Tethyan tectonics, back-arc basin evolution, slab dynamics, and S-type granite petrogenesis. This response presents evidence-based challenges to the authors’ interpretations, grounded in recent peer-reviewed literature (2022–2025).

2. The Sr Isotope Data Issue Requires Systematic Re-evaluation

2.1 Inadequate Data Quality Control

The authors’ dismissal of the 0.5678 initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr value as merely from a “global comparison dataset” evades the fundamental issue: inclusion of geologically impossible data compromises the entire comparative framework. Wang et al. (2022) reported this value for sample 17GYB09 with a Rb/Sr ratio of 52, which the authors claim explains the anomaly. However, this explanation is scientifically problematic.

Contemporary evidence challenges this dismissal:

1. High Rb/Sr ratios alone cannot produce sub-mantle Sr isotope ratios.: Even extremely high Rb/Sr systems converge toward radiogenic (high ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) values over time, not depleted values below primordial mantle (Faure & Mensing, 2005; Dickin, 2018).

2. The value violates fundamental geochronological principles.: Shan et al. (2022)…