Reply to the Discussion by Shahid Azam on “Aiban, SA (2006) Compressibility and swelling characteristics of Al-Khobar Palygorskite, eastern Saudi Arabia, Engineering Geology 87(3–4):205–219”

The author would like to express his thanks and appreciation to the discusser for his interest in the paper and for the comments raised. The discusser raised a few points, and it seems that he is looking for detailed discussion or description of certain items in the paper; for example the origin and geologic formation issues and the post-formation chemical interaction. These two issues, in particular, deserve separate articles each. One of the main points that needs to be made is the fact that the paper was not intended to discuss, in details, all issues related to Al-Khobar palygorskite. In addition, some earlier publications discussed these topics in detail since 1973. Furthermore, the paper is 15 pages long and such length will limit some details from being provided. One reviewer, of the original article, has already criticized the paper for the lengthy geological background. Meanwhile, the paper has provided brief description that was felt sufficient for these issues.