The spectacular granite outcrops of the Seychelles Islands in the central Indian Ocean were amongst the earliest examples cited by Alfred Wegener

Alfred Wegener

Alfred Lothar Wegener was a German scientist, geophysicist, and meteorologist.He is most notable for his theory of continental drift , proposed in 1912, which hypothesized that the continents were slowly drifting around the Earth...

 as evidence for his continental drift

Continental drift

Continental drift is the movement of the Earth's continents relative to each other. The hypothesis that continents 'drift' was first put forward by Abraham Ortelius in 1596 and was fully developed by Alfred Wegener in 1912...

 theory. Ridge-plume interactions have been responsible for separating a thinned continental sliver from a large continent (India).

The granites of the Seychelles microcontinent were emplaced 750 Ma, during the late Precambrian . Thermally-induced rifting in the Somali Basin and transform rifting along the Davie fracture zone began in the late Permian 225 million years ago, with Gondwana

Gondwana

In paleogeography, Gondwana , originally Gondwanaland, was the southernmost of two supercontinents that later became parts of the Pangaea supercontinent. It existed from approximately 510 to 180 million years ago . Gondwana is believed to have sutured between ca. 570 and 510 Mya,...

 supercontinent beginning to break up in the mid-Jurassic

Jurassic

The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Mya to  Mya, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the age of reptiles. The start of the period is marked by...

 (about 167 million years ago) when East Gondwana, comprising Antarctica

Antarctic Plate

The Antarctic Plate is a tectonic plate covering the continent of Antarctica and extending outward under the surrounding oceans. The Antarctic Plate has a boundary with the Nazca Plate, the South American Plate, the African Plate, the Indo-Australian Plate, the Scotia Plate and a divergent boundary...

, Madagascar

Madagascar

The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...

, India, and Australia, began to separate from Africa

African Plate

The African Plate is a tectonic plate which includes the continent of Africa, as well as oceanic crust which lies between the continent and various surrounding ocean ridges.-Boundaries:...

; East Gondwana then began to separate about 115-120 million years ago when India began to move northward. The Seychelles then underwent two more stages of rifting to isolate it from Madagascar and India. Between 84-95 million years ago rifting separated Seychelles/India from Madagascar. An initial period of transform rifting moved the Seychelles/India block northward. At 84 million years ago oceanic crust started to form in the Mascarene basin, causing a rotation of the Seychelles/India land mass. This continued until 65 million years ago when new rifting severed the Seychelles from India forming the currently active Carlsberg Ridge

Carlsberg Ridge

The Carlsberg Ridge is the northern section of the Central Indian Ridge, a divergent tectonic plate boundary between the African Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate, traversing the western regions of the Indian Ocean....

. The rift jump coincided with the maximum output of the Deccan traps, and volcanics found on the Seychelles Plateau have also been linked with this event. This has led to suggestions that the initiation of the Reunion plume

Réunion hotspot

The Réunion hotspot is a volcanic hotspot which currently lies under the Island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. The Chagos-Laccadive Ridge and the southern part of the Mascarene Plateau are volcanic traces of the Réunion hotspot....

caused rifting to jump to its current location.