Mauritia (microcontinent)
Mauritia was a Precambrian microcontinent that broke away as India and Madagascar separated some 60 million years ago. Evidence consists of detrital zircon found in rock. Analyses of the zircon crystals produced dates between 660 and 1,970 million years and are considerably older than the 8.9-million-year-old basalt that constitutes the oldest formations on the island. The zircons are interpreted to have been brought up from buried continental crust as fragments entrained as xenocrysts within the basalt. Interpretation of a linear northwest–southeast gravity anomaly indicates the microcontinent may extend from the Seychelles to Mauritius roughly parallel to the Indian Ocean oceanic ridge.
