Dear Lior, thank you for your revised paper. I think this new version is now of publishable standard and brings a new layer of understanding regarding the dynamics of subduction zones. However, can you please check the following two minor points: I have noticed that in your paper you choose the base of the asthenosphere are 220km. Is this a commonly accepted definition for the asthenosphere? Reference? Also in Table S1, the values of the pre-factor A are 1e-150 1e-145 to 1e-300, can you check these figures? I would have thought that most computers won't be able to deal with them. Kind regards, Patrice

Dear authors,

Many thanks for the revision of your manuscript. I am happy to accept the paper, subject to some minor revisions as outlined below.

I would like to ask you to take into account the suggestions by Referee #2 as attached. You will see that these are mainly textual in character.

The point i wanted to ask you about concerns the flow laws. I understand that the parameters in the flow laws follow Garel et al 2014 and were tuned to fit geophysical observations. For those instances where the flow law parameters were either set or motivated by values of laboratory experiments, could you please mention the original references to these laboratory experiments?

With best wishes,
Susanne Buiter
Executive Editor Solid Earth

Dear authors,

Many thanks for these last technical corrections. I am happy to accept your manuscript for publication in Solid Earth.

With best wishes,
Susanne Buiter