scholarly journals Morphotectonics of the Mascarene Islands

1998 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Hantke ◽  
A. E. Scheidegger

A study is made of the orientations (strikes/trends) of joints, valleys, ridges and lineaments, i.e. of the (potentially) morphotectonic features, of the Mascarene Islands (Reunion, Mauritius and Rodrigues) in the Indian Ocean. It turns out that a connection exists between these features on all islands. For the joints alone, the results for Mauritius as a whole agree closely with those for Rodrigues as a whole, and also partially with those of Reunion. Inasmuch as the trends of the valleys, ridges and lineaments are related to the trends (strikes) of the joints, a common morphotectonic predesign seems to be present for all features studied. The morphotectonic orientations on the island also agree closely with the trends of fracture zones, ridges and trenches in the nearby ocean bottom; which has had a bearing on the theories of the origin of the Mascarene Islands. Generally, a hot-spot origin is preferred for Reunion, and may be for Mauritius as well, although differing opinions have also been voiced. The dynamics of a hot-spot is hard to reconcile with the close fit of the joint strikes in Réunion with the trends of the Madagascar and Rodrigues fracture zones. The closely agreeing joint maxima in Mauritius and Rodrigues í across the deep Mauritius trench í also agree with the trend of that trench and with the trend of the Rodrigues fracture zone. Thus, it would appear as most likely that the trends of joints and of fracture zones are all part of the same pattern and are due to the same cause: viz. to action of the neotectonic stress field.

The floor of the Indian Ocean is dominated by (1) the seismically active Mid-Oceanic Ridge, (2) scattered linear micro-continents (mostly meridional), and (3) fracture zones (some displace the axis of the Mid-Oceanic Ridge and others parallel the micro-continents). The pattern suggests that movement along the Diamantina Fracture Zone has displaced Australia to the east relative to Broken Ridge. In the Arabian Sea north-northeast trending fracture zones have displaced the axis of the Carlsberg Ridge. The complex tectonic fabric of the Indian Ocean is difficult to explain in terms of a simple pattern of convection currents. The location and origin of the Mid-Oceanic Ridge, of oceanic rises, aseismic ridges and transcurrent fault systems must be accounted for in any hypothesis of continental displacement despite unique or exotic assumptions as to strength, viscosity or composition of the oceanic crust and mantle.


2001 ◽  
Vol 106 (B12) ◽  
pp. 30689-30699 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kei Katsumata ◽  
Toshinori Sato ◽  
Junzo Kasahara ◽  
Naoshi Hirata ◽  
Ryota Hino ◽  
...  

1996 ◽  
Vol 23 (7) ◽  
pp. 713-716 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshinori Sato ◽  
Kei Katsumata ◽  
Junzo Kasahara ◽  
Naoshi Hirata ◽  
Ryota Hino ◽  
...  

1979 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. 2236-2262 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. R. Vogt

A growing body of evidence suggests that certain areas of high-amplitude (H) sea-floor spreading-type magnetic anomalies reflect FeTi-enriched basalts of high remanent magnetization. A worldwide tabulation of these 'H-zones' is presented, together with a review of pertinent geochemical, rock magnetic, and deep-tow data relevant to the hypothesis of magnetic telechemistry.' H-zones are found in two tectonic settings: (1) along 102–103 km long sections of spreading axis close to hot spots; and (2) in narrow bands extending a few hundred kilometres along the edges of some fracture zones. Amplitudes in both provinces are 1.5 to 5, typically 2 to 3 times normal, and the hot spot H-zones are known from spreading half-rates of 0.6 to 3.7 cm yr−1 The highest amplitudes, magnetizations, and FeTi enrichment (up to 15–18% FeOT and 2–3% TiO2) seem to occur where both provinces overlap, i.e., where fracture zones occur near hot spots, for example along the Blanco Fracture Zone south of the Juan de Fuca hot spot and along the Inca Fracture Zone east of the Galapagos hot spot. The FeTi enrichment appears to reflect shallow-depth crystal fractionation (plagioclase, augite, and olivine), which is more extensive near hot spots, and more generally for fast-spreading ridges. H-zones presently affect at least 2.6 × 103 km, or 6.5% of the Mid-Ocean Ridge axis. However, the total known H-area of 8.5 × 105 km2 represents only 0.3% of oceanic crust. This suggests that older H-zones remain to be discovered, or/and that conditions favoring the formation of FeTi basalt and H-anomalies are more prevalent now than they have been on the average for the last 108 years. Evidence for the latter is provided by the known expansion of the magnetically well surveyed Juan de Fuca, Galapagos, and Yermak (Arctic) H-zones in the last 5 million years.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harsh Gupta

<p>The 26 December 2004 Sumatra earthquake of Mw 9.2 and the resultant tsunami that claimed over 2,50,000 human lives is probably the most destructive natural disaster of the 21<sup>st</sup> Century so far. Although the science of tsunami warning had advanced sufficiently by that time, with several tsunami warning centers operating in various oceans, no such system existed for the Indian Ocean. Here we present the discussions and interactions held in India and globally to convince setting up of ITEWS. False tsunami alarms subsequent to 26 December 2004 earthquake had developed a sense of scientific disbelief in the public and to a certain extent in Government of India. We demonstrated to the national and international community that there are only two stretches of faults that could host tsunamigenic earthquakes as far as the India Ocean is concerned. These are: 1) a stretch of some 4000 km of a fault segment extending from Sumatra to Andaman Islands and 2) an area of about 500 km radius off the Makaran Coast in the Arabian Sea. And if we cover these two areas with ocean bottom pressure recorders, the problem of false alarms would be reduced to a large- extant. This plan was finally agreed to and necessary financial, logistic and technical support was made available. The setting up of the ITEWS started in middle 2005 and was completed in August 2007. It has performed very efficiently since then. Over the past ~ 8 years, it monitored ~ 500 M ≥ 6.5 and provided advisories. As against the requirement placed by IOC of issuing an advisory in 10 to 15 minutes time, ITEWS has been doing it in ~ 8 minutes. Since its inception in 2007, no false alarm has been issued and it is rated among the best in the world.</p><p>IOC has designated ITEWS as the Regional Tsunami advisory Provider (TSP) Indian Ocean Regional Tsunami Center.</p>


IJOHMN ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 90-103
Author(s):  
Meng Yuqiu

Correcting the early Manichean interpretation of the abundant Baudelairian image of the black, later criticism tends to downplay the realist slavery framework and put emphasis on the psychological and philosophical dimension of the relationship between the master and the slave. My historicized analysis of “A une dame créole” uncovers evocations of slavery, violence and revolution in the vocabulary and imagery of the poem. By inscribing into the Ronsardian tradition a former French slave colony whose ruling elite never embraced revolutionary ideas, I argue, the poem puts the colonial enterprise into the perspective of France’s nation building and problematizes both. The 1863 prose poem “La belle Dorothée” in which Baudelaire refers back again to his experience in the Mascarene Islands, exposes the crude nature of the French policy that pretended to give the slaves freedom while forced them to live in idleness, poverty or prostitution. If Baudelaire’s oft discussed exoticism manifests a rejection of the society of his time, his longing for Africa and the Indian Ocean should not be dismissed as escapism.


2019 ◽  
pp. 104-135
Author(s):  
Owen Stanwood

Aside from their skills with silk and wine, Huguenots promoted themselves as strategic allies after war came to Europe and America in 1689. As experts on French strategy, the refugees believed their assistance would be invaluable in helping Britain and the Netherlands defeat the Sun King. This belief in the Huguenots’ strategic importance sent more of them to imperial border regions. The chapter focuses on three in particular: the Caribbean basin, the borderlands between New England and New France, and the Mascarene Islands in the Indian Ocean. In each case refugees faced discrimination from those who suspected them of being in league with the French enemy, even as they did their best to help the Protestant cause. The chapter ends with the last and most ambitious plan for a Huguenot colony, in Carolana on the Gulf Coast, an ultimately failed design that led to the formation of Manakintown in Virginia.


Tempo ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 294-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard B. Allen

Abstract: Thirty-eight years ago, Hubert Gerbeau discussed the problems that contributed to the “history of silence” surrounding slave trading in the Indian Ocean. While the publication of an expanding body of scholarship since the late 1980s demonstrates that this silence is not as deafening as it once was, our knowledge and understanding of this traffic in chattel labor remains far from complete. This article discusses the problems surrounding attempts to reconstruct European slave trading in the Indian Ocean between 1500 and 1850. Recently created inventories of British East India Company slaving voyages during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and of French, Portuguese, and other voyages involving the Mascarene Islands of Mauritius and Réunion between 1670 and the 1830s not only shed light on the nature and dynamics of British and French slave trading in the Indian Ocean, but also highlight topics and issues that future research on European slave trading within and beyond this oceanic world will need to address.


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