Dear Dr Feldmann and co-authors,

Thank you for your careful response to each of the reviewers' comments.

Most of the queries raised by the reviewers were relatively minor. I do note that Dr Christian raised some major comments with respect to the experimental choices and their justification/presentation in the manuscript, as well as a minor point with respect to the flux-balance analysis that will require some clarification. It would be great to see these points addressed in an updated manuscript, which I invite you to submit, along with a tracked changes version.

Best regards,
Felicity McCormack
Monash University

Dear Dr Feldmann and co-authors,

Thank you for your careful revision of the manuscript in light of the reviewers’ comments.

Please find a couple of very minor specific comments below. After taking these into account, I’ll have a look at the revised version again, but I strongly suspect the manuscript will be acceptable for publication in TC.

- I’m agree with you that “instability-prone” in the title and “ice sheet-shelf system” are both appropriate in the contexts you’ve applied them
- There is now some repetition in the discussion around how including GIA would impact the results (lines 351-354 and 367-372). I suggest moving the earlier occurrence into the larger paragraph from line 367.
- L370: “However, also self-amplifying feedbacks…” --> “However, self-amplifying feedbacks also…”

Thanks again.

Best regards,
Felicity McCormack

Dear Dr Feldmann and coauthors,

Thanks very much for your response to the comments and modifications to the manuscript.

We would be very happy to accept your manuscript for publication in the Cryosphere.

Thanks again for choosing to submit to the Cryosphere.

Best regards,
Felicity McCormack