Reply to Comment On, “compilation of Geophysical, Geochronological, and Geochemical Evidence Indicates a Rapid Mediterranean-derived Submergence of the Black Sea's Shelf and Subsequent Substantial Salinification in the Early Holocene” by A.G. Yanchilina, W.B.F. Ryan, J.F. McManus, P. Dimitrov, D. Dimitrov, K. Slavova, M. Filipova-Marinova [marine Geology 383 (2017) 14–34]

Soulet (2018) asserts that the calculation of the 14C reservoir age for the geochronology of the Black Sea sediments suffers from a fundamental flaw. He contends that Yanchilina et al. (2017) obtained reservoir ages by first sorting the delta O-18 and delta C-13 values of the mollusks as a function of their corresponding C-14 age before aligning the mollusk isotope curves to those of the nearby Sofular Cave. Sorting by C-14 age would lead to an incorrect calendar age for each delta O-18 and delta C-13 measurement because it does not take into account changing reservoir ages. We reply here that this sorting by C-14 age was not the procedure taken. The radiocarbon reservoir ages were derived after tuning the delta O-18 and delta C-13 composition of the mollusks, sorted by their 8180, 813C, radiocarbon age and stratigraphic location in each core, to the delta O-18 and delta C-13 composition of the U/Th dated Sofular Cave stalagmites as a function of calendar age, shown to reflect Black Sea surface water delta O-18 and delta C-13 composition. After the calendar age was derived for each mollusk, it was then converted to a corresponding Northern Hemisphere atmospheric C-14 age using Reimer et al. (2009). The C-14 reservoir age was subsequently calculated from the difference between the measured C-14 age of the mollusks and the calculated Northern Hemisphere atmospheric C-14 age of the mollusks, R(t) = 14C(shell)(t) - 14C(atm) (t) (e.g., Ryan, 2007; Kwiecien et al., 2009; Jull et al., 2013; Philippsen, 2013; Soulet, 2015; Soulet et al., 2016). The Reimer et al. (2009) calibration used in our original study differs < 0.5% from the Reimer et al. (2013) calibration.