Mauritius, where this unusual “underwater waterfall” exists, was created about 8 million years ago, and is the second-largest of the Mascarene Islands. The emergence of lava from the bottom of the seafloor created all of the Mascarene Islands in the geological blink-of-an-eye. The Réunion hotspot, which for some reason went relatively quiet about ~45 million years ago, became active about 10 million years ago. The entire southern half of the Mascarene Plateau is one of the newest major features on our planet, having only been created over the most recent few million years. This image, taken from the International Space Station by astronaut Karen Nyberg in 2013, shows the two largest islands on the southern part of the Mascarene Plateau: Réunion, in the foreground, and Mauritius, partially covered by clouds. You have to travel a substantial distance away from the land mass to reach the edge of the continental shelf, where finally the transition to deep ocean waters - tens of thousands of feet (and thousands of meters) down - occurs. Surrounding the land masses on all sides are continental shelfs where the water is, at most, a few hundred feet (or up to around ~150 meters) deep. On a continent, you have a large land mass that very, very gradually transitions into deep ocean waters. ![]() ![]() The first thing you have to recognize is that a submarine plateau, in general, has a series of features specific to it that are very different from what continent-dwellers are used to. Off of the southern coast, there’s an even more spectacular sight: what appears to be an underwater waterfall. The Island of Mauritius, itself located on the southern edge of the Mascarene Plateau, is surrounded by many different coral reefs, each containing their own unique, but threatened by climate change, flora and fauna. Here’s the science behind this fascinating phenomenon. The second largest of the southern islands, Mauritius, is not only one of the most beautiful natural locations on Earth, but also has one striking feature that’s unparalleled: what appears to be an underwater waterfall. In a few select locations, such as the Seychelles to the north and the Mascarene Islands to the south, the volcanic features have led to the emergence of land masses, poking up above sea level and have been inhabited by humans for centuries. Beneath the water’s surface, a submarine plateau persists, known as the Mascarene Plateau. However, a less-widely known set of oceanic islands is found about 2000 miles east of the eastern coast of Africa. These geological hotspots frequently create oceanic islands and/or chains of islands, with some of the more famous ones including the Hawaiian Islands, American Samoa, and the Galapagos Islands. In a few select locations, even surrounded by ocean waters that can sink to depths of multiple miles or more, land masses emerge, compelled upwards by the eruptive volcanic forces springing forth from Earth’s mantle. ![]() Although most of the land masses on Earth are present in the well-known form of continents, there are a few exceptions to that rule.
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