Abstract This reply addresses the comment by Vespremeanu-Stroe et al. on our paper which offered broad evidence for the existence of high amplitude vertical displacements at Mangalia, Romania, during the 18th–19th centuries. The comment proposes an alternative storm/tsunami origin for the anomalously elevated marine deposits. We show that the comment relies on weak arguments and is built on unpublished data that cannot be properly evaluated. We systematically rebut these claims, demonstrating th