Abstract
Deccan Trap flood basalt province of India is one of the most intriguing and unusually large
volcanic episodes in earth history that occurred some 68-64 million years ago, overlapping the
K/T mass extinction event. The lavas are
generally thought to have been produced from a large plume head whose tail produced the
Laccadives-Maldives hot-spot track. The relict of this plume is currently producing volcanic
eruptions on the Runion Island in the Indian
Ocean. When the Indian plate first encountered this large plume, a part of the former tore off
and formed the Seychelles Islands an archipelago nation of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean.
Seychelles is also known as a Microcontinent. Some like to use the separation of Seychelles from
India as
a miniature model for the bigger scale separation of continents and formation of ocean basins.
In this talk I will show some field pictures of the site where Seychelles microcontinent was
once attached to the Indian plate. I will include some minimal petrology stuff, perform
considerable arm
waving about how Seychelles separated from India and freely speculate about plumes, flood
basalts, and separation of continents.