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Reeve et al. (2022) address the stratigraphic record of continental breakup by focusing on a set of stratigraphic unconformities from a proxima l sector of the NW Australian continenta l margin, inboard from the Exmouth Plateau. They suggest that such unconfor mities can potentially document a well-defined three-stage process: end of the synrift phase, formatio n of a wide continent-ocea n transitio n zone (COTZ) and generatio n of 'true' Penrose-type oceanic crust. We counterargue that continental breakup is a protracted event that can only be understood via seismic-and chronostratigraphic correlations of strata, and their composing sequences, across and along rifted margins. Tying proxima l stratigraphic unconfor mities to magnetic anomalies outboard from the study area in Reeve et al. ( 2022) is This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as

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We provide a structural analysis and propose a geomechanical model for an extensional fault system observed in seismic data from the deep water Santos Basin, offshore Brazil. The system includes low-angle normal faults (LANFs) associated with underlying listric faults and salt rollers. The LANFs cut through shallow sedimentary successions up to the seafloor, reaching displacements of 1 km during the last 5 myr, at least one order of magnitude larger than the displacement of the coeval Andersonian high-angle normal faults. We suggest that the LANFs were produced by clockwise rotation of the stress field caused by the presence of salt intruded along the footwall of the main listric normal faults of the extensional system. Numerical models indicate that the proposed geomechanical model can be attained with strain weakening and widespread plastic yielding along the main normal faults. We suggest that the studied LANFs are related to salt flow in the same way that the LANFs described in regional extensional provinces are related to flow of either the lower crust or the mantle. The rheological analogy is remarkable and therefore we suggest that this work will contribute to the solution of the LANFs paradox.