Geology

The Seychelles plateau, together with India, Madagascar, Africa, South America and Antarctica formed Gondwana. 165 million years ago together with Madagascar and India, Seychelles drifted away from Africa. Leaving Madagascar behind 80 million years later, and following India to the North, it stopped his voyage 15 million years later. During this period  one of the greatest volcano eruption events in world’s history had place and dominated Seychelles and the whole region. The volcanic remains at “Pointe Zeng Zeng” and “Pointe Ramasse tout” are the only evidence of this volcanic activity in the earlier Seychelles. Probably there was a crater south-east of La Passe. The Grand Barbe basin should be a collapsed magma chamber, seen the difference in composition from the underground. Some theories also say that the catastrophic impact making an end at the  dinosaurs era should have had place in Seychelles forming the Amirante Bassin, which for the moment is only half a circle, but at that time Seychelles and India were still together, so the other half drifted away together with India and should now lie in front of Bombay. 

The Indian Ocean like it was 18000 years ago during the last ice age.

Anyway 18.000 years ago, during the last ice age sea level dropped 120 meters, and the actual Seychelles were part of a much larger landmass covering +32.000 km². Probably in earlier ice ages sea level was even lower and a land bridge was formed between the Seychelles, Calgado, Mauritius and Madagascar. This could explain the presence of some animals like chameleons and day geckos nowadays. The Seychelles are not just the only granitic mid-ocean islands in the world, they are also the oldest islands of any ocean.