Reply to the comment of Lovera et al. (2015) on “Systematic variations of argon diffusion in feldspars and implications for thermochronometry” by Cassata and Renne

In this reply we address remarks from Lovera et al. (2015) regarding experiments that we conducted on K-feldspar from Madagascar and their previously published diffusion experiments. Observations of curvature on Arrhenius plots obtained from multiple-domain K-feldspars, as discussed by Lovera et al. (2015), are consistent with the general conclusion of our paper that both sub-grain domains and structural modifications associated with laboratory heating cause deviations from linearity on Arrhenius plots. We review observations of non-linearity that are inconsistent with multiple-domain theory (e.g., upward curvature on plagioclase Arrhenius plots) to support our contention that structural transitions are an important consideration.