A granite island! Picture courtesy of Nia and Patrick.

My good friends Nia and Patrick recently went on holiday in the Seychelles, an archipelago nation consisting of 115 islands. The Seychelles are located north of Madagascar. Along with Mauritius and Zanzibar, the Seychelles are a popular tropical vacation destination for South Africans.

Geologically, the Seychelles are very interesting. There are two types of islands in the Seychelles: young coral islands and older islands made of granite. There are approximately 40 granite islands in the “Inner Island” area, which is where the vast majority of the Seychelles population is located. The Seychelles islands are part of the Mascarene Plateau. The approximately 700 million year old granites found on some of the Seychelles islands (and on the northern Mascarene Plateau) are a fragment of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana. Pretty amazing, huh?

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing some of Nia and Patrick’s Seychelles pictures for my “Monday Geology Picture” posts. I hope you enjoy seeing little fragments of Gondwana! The pictures in this post were all taken on the island of La Digue.

A closer view of some of the interesting granite weathering. Picture courtesy of Nia and Patrick.

More granite! Picture courtesy of Nia and Patrick.