Download or read book Cenozoic Evolution of Isolated Carbonate Platforms from the Mozambique Channel (SW Indian Ocean) written by Simon Courgeon and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although the long-term evolution of shallow-water carbonate platforms has been the subject of numerous studies during the last decades, their driving processes and the potential interactions with geodynamic activity are still deeply debated. The Mozambique Channel, located between East Africa and Madagascar continental margins, is characterized by several isolated shallow-water carbonate platforms (the Eparses Islands) and by flat-top seamounts and terraces currently lying at several hundred meters deep. Based on a varied oceanographic dataset, including bathymetric-+ DEMs, submarine videos, dredged rock samples and multi-resolution seismic, our study revealed that the surrounding flat-top submarine edifices correspond to drowned isolated shallow-water carbonate platforms that originally settled on volcanic substrates during distinct Cenozoic periods. The major drowning events, which occurred during the Late Neogene, were seemingly triggered by high rates of accommodation creation induced by extensional tectonic and/or by environmental perturbations related to volcanic activity. In parallel, tectonic deformation and volcanic accretion also resulted in the formation of raised topographies that formed relevant substrates for the edification of modern carbonate platforms and atolls. The location, timing and nature of the Late Cenozoic geodynamic activity observed along the studied isolated carbonate platforms tend to emphasize the influence and the propagation of the East African Rift System until the southern Mozambique Channel and strengthen recent kinematic models.