The Seychelles is part of the granitic Mascarene Plateau which broke off from the Indian Plate about 65 mya.

* Mascarene Plateau

The islands share a common geologic origin in the volcanism of the Réunion hotspot beneath the Mascarene Plateau and form a distinct ecoregion with a unique flora and fauna.

The Mascarene Plateau is an undersea plateau that extends approximately 2000 km, from the Seychelles to Réunion.

Soudan Banks are a group of low-lying banks on the Mascarene Plateau.

Hawkins Bank is located on the northernmost point of the Mascarene Plateau.

* Joint submission by the Republic of Mauritius and the Republic of Seychelles-in the region of the Mascarene Plateau ( 1 December 2008 )

* Southern Mascarene Plateau – Chagos-Maldives-Laccadive Ridge ( Réunion hotspot )

The Chagos-Laccadive Ridge and the southern part of the Mascarene Plateau are volcanic traces of the Réunion hotspot.

The Mascarene Plateau is a submarine plateau in the Indian Ocean, north and east of Madagascar.

pl: Mascarene Plateau

The Saya de Malha Bank ( also Sahia de Malha Bank, Modern Portuguese: saia de malha, English mesh skirt ) is the largest submerged bank in the World, part of the vast undersea Mascarene Plateau.

* Geochronology of Basement Rocks from the Mascarene Plateau, the Chagos Bank and the Maldives Ridge

* Geochronology of Basement Rocks from the Mascarene Plateau, the Chagos Bank and the Maldives Ridge

* Geochronology of Basement Rocks from the Mascarene Plateau, the Chagos Bank and the Maldives Ridge

The Nazareth Bank is part of the vast undersea Mascarene Plateau and of the Reunion hotspot track.

This region is notorious for a hot, humid climate in which tropical fevers are endemic and also for the destructive cyclones that occur during the rainy season, coming in principally from the direction of the Mascarene Islands.

The Mascarene Islands ( or Mascarenhas Archipelago ) is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar comprising Mauritius, Réunion, Rodrigues, Cargados Carajos shoals, plus the former islands of the Saya de Malha, Nazareth and Soudan banks.

As is common among remote islands, the Mascarene fauna and flora display a high degree of endemism ; they include over a thousand species of which several hundred are endemic.

In prehistoric times the islands were covered in a diverse range of tropical moist broadleaf forest At present however, though the Mascarene islands form a distinct ecoregion, known as the Mascarene forests, the ecoregion is not homogeneous, and comprises at least five fairly distinct vegetation zones that reflect variations in altitude and in moisture regime.

Many endemic Mascarene birds are derived from South Asian ancestors, including the Dodo, and it has been proposed that it is true for the parrots as well.

This is surprising, due to its anatomical similarities with other Mascarene parrots that are believed to be Psittaculines.

The Egyptian Goose is native to mainland Africa, and the extinct species are from Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands.

The anomalies of the Mammal fauna of Madagascar can best be explained by supposing that ... a large continent occupied parts of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans ... that this continent was broken up into islands, of which some have become amalgamated with ... Africa, some ... with what is now Asia ; and that in Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands we have existing relics of this great continent, for which ...

It is endemic to the Mascarene Islands ( Mauritius and Réunion ) in the Indian Ocean.

The family is native to Australia, New Caledonia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Oceania, Mexico, Central America, South America, Madagascar, the Mascarene Islands, and southern Africa.

The largest genus is Tambourissa, with 50 species in Madagascar, the Mascarene Islands, and the Comoros.

The Piton des Neiges ( Snow Peak ) is a massive 3, 069 m ( 10, 069 ft ) shield volcano on Réunion, one of the French volcanic islands in the Mascarene Archipelago in the southwestern Indian Ocean.

The northern part of the Mascarene plateau is formed of granite, and is a fragment of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana.

Sega music or Séga is the major music of the Mascarene Islands: Mauritius, Réunion and Rodrigues as well as of the Seychelles.

Seggae is a fusion genre of sega, the traditional music of the Mascarene Islands, and reggae.

Heteropoda venatoria, commonly called the brown huntsman spider or laya, is found in many tropical and subtropical parts of the world, including Asia, some Mascarene and Caribbean islands, the southeastern US, and ( especially ) Australia.

The genus is native to a limited area in eastern Madagascar and Mascarene Islands.

The Mascarene Islands are surrounded by approximately 750 square km of coral reef.

In 2011 the United Nations endorsed the joint submission of Mauritius and Seychelles to extend their continental shelf of 396, 000 km < sup > 2 </ sup > in the Mascarene region which gives the two countries sovereign right to jointly manage and exploit the seabed and subsoil of the joint area.

The northern part of the Mascarene plateau includes the Seychelles and Agalega Islands.

The southern part of the Mascarene plateau includes the Mascarene Islands, Saya de Malha Bank, Nazareth Bank, Soudan Banks, and Hawkins Bank.

The southern part of the Mascarene plateau, also known as Southern Mascarene plateau ( SMP ), was formed by the Réunion volcanic hotspot along with the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge.

The banks and shoals of the southern part of the Mascarene plateau 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 five banks ( actually a single feature ) lie on the Mascarene plateau.

The Western Indo-Pacific covers the western and central portion of the Indian Ocean, including the Africa's east coast, the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, and Andaman Sea, as well as the coastal waters surrounding Madagascar, the Seychelles, Comoros, Mascarene Islands, Maldives, and Chagos Archipelago.

The islets of the Cargados Carajos Shoals, which have a very depauperate terrestrial biota owing to being so low-lying and swamped during cyclones, are bound to the east by an extensive arc of fringing reef, which accounts for ∼ 30 % of the reefs of the Mascarene Islands.