Dear Heiko,

thank you again for submitting your MS to Biogeosciences. The Reviewers were generally positive and I would thus like to invite you to hand in a revised version of your MS addressing the reviewers concerns adequately (please, also provide a point-by-point reply to all criticism raised).

Best, Helge

Dear Heiko,

thank you very much for the nicely revised MS. I went through it and think that the reviewer's concerns were addressed appropriately. There's a few minor technical details that should be addressed (see below); apart from this, I would like to accept you manuscript.

Best, Helge
p2 line 8, “once” reads as if the oil immediately weathers and instantaneously loses lighter HCs
p3 l2. unclear. I presume you mean that the stable isotopes of the CH4 within the hydrate suggests a methanogenic origin of the methane?
p6 l1 second sentence reads odd rephrase to something like “based on video footage, we could only ID fauna to the level of XX” or the like
p6 l17. sentence reads odd “flares connected to the seafloor..” rephrase to something like flares/bubbles emanating from the seafloor at depth of up to 3500 m” or the like
p7 l5/6. what is this hypothesis based on?
p8 l4/5, sentence in brackets. Change to “one drop of oil / one oil drop every x-xx minutes”
p8 l9/10 unclear what you mean by “fascinating structures”. And, how does this provides insights into mechanisms of oil deposition? Do you refer to the flow structures you mention?
p9 l11/12 you mean the worms were invisible for UW video systems?.
p9 l24. unclear. You saw GH and you assume that GH are not present any more? You mean not outcropping? Did you find elevated gas conc. in the sediments?
10 l6-8. sentence is incomplete.
p11. l 3. “which is a particular type of hydrocarbon seepage” is redundant as you talk about seepage of heavy oil just bevor. It should be common knowledge that oil is a mix mostly consisting of HCs.
p11, l16. Bending up reads odd. “Doming” might be more appropriate.
p13, ll3. rephrase, the worms are not growing on hydrate (that would mean that they feed on hydrate), rather on top of it (?)
p13, l18. rather use “considers” instead of regards
p14, l27/28. The text in brackets reads odd. Change to something like “…discharge rates of heavy oil at the seafloor remain unknown but could, possibly, be in the range of weeks to years”
P16, l5. This sentence is incomplete
P16, l22ff. This is rather a summery than a conclusion and should be titled accordingly