The Mascarene Plateau is an undersea plateau in the Indian Ocean, north and east of Madagascar. The plateau extends approximately 2000 km, from the Seychelles in the north to Réunion in the south. The plateau covers an area of over 115,000 km² of shallow water, with depths ranging from 8 to 150 meters, plunging to 4000 m to the abyssal plain at its edges. It is the largest undersea plateau in the Indian Ocean. For alternate uses of the term, see Plateau (disambiguation). ... Réunion is an island, as well as an overseas département (département doutre-mer, or DOM) of France, located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar. ... Abyssal plains are flat or very gently sloping areas of the ocean basin floor where rocks gradually sink into the ground because they have no supporting heat energy below them; the worlds flattest and smoothest regions are caused by this effect. ...

The northern part of the plateau, including the Seychelles, is formed of granite, and is a fragment of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana. The granite is topped with deposits of limestone and basalt. The basalt deposits in the Seychelles are from the Deccan Traps eruption, which occurred in central India 65 million years ago. The Seychelles formerly lay next to the west coast of India, but seafloor spreading later moved India to its current position, causing it to collide with Asia. Granite - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... This article is about the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana. ... Media:Example. ... Basalt Basalt is an extrusive igneous rock, sometimes porphyritic, and is often both fine-grained and dense. ... The Deccan Traps is located in west-central India and is one of the largest volcanic features on Earth. ... Seafloor spreading is a part of the theory of plate tectonics. ... World map showing location of Asia A satellite composite image of Asia Asia is the central and eastern part of the continent of Eurasia, defined by subtracting the European peninsula from Eurasia. ...

The southern part of the plateau, including the Saya de Malha Bank, Nazareth Bank, the Cargados Carajos Shoals (Saint Brandon), and the mountainous islands of Mauritius, Réunion, and Rodrigues, were formed by the Réunion hotspot. The banks and shoals were once volcanic islands much like Mauritius and Réunion, which have now sunk or eroded to below sea level, or, in the case of the Cargados Carajos, to low coral islands. The Saya de Malha Bank formed 35 million years ago, and the Nazareth Bank and the Cargados Carajos shoals after that. Limestone banks found on the plateau are the remnants of coral reefs, indicating that the plateau was a succession of islands. Some of the banks may have been islands as recently as 18,000 - 6,000 years ago, when sea levels were up to 130 meters lower during the most recent ice age. Mauritius formed 8-10 million years ago, and Rodrigues and Réunion beginning two million years ago; Piton de la Fournaise volcano on Réunion is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. Réunion is an island, as well as an overseas département (département doutre-mer, or DOM) of France, located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar. ... Rodrigues (or Rodriguez) is an island in the Indian Ocean. ... The Réunion hotspot is a volcanic hotspot which presently lies under the Island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. ... Media:Example. ... Some of the biodiversity of a coral reef. ... Variations in CO2, temperature and dust from the Vostok ice core over the last 400 000 years For the animated movie, see Ice Age (movie). ... Categories: Stub | Shield volcanoes | Hotspot volcanoes | Volcanoes of France | Volcanoes of the Indian Ocean ...