Fragments of ancient continent buried under Indian Ocean

[Xithras]

6. It's also a misleading and confusing claim.

Mauritius sits on the Mascarene Plateau, which stretches from Mauritius to the Seychelles. As far as I can tell, this new "microcontinent of Mauritius" IS the Mascarene Plateau.

The thing is, geologists have known that the Mascarene Plateau is a continental fragment for a very long time. It's also overlaid with a basalt layer that has been matched to the Deccan Traps, so it's also not news that it was once connected to India directly. While nobody has called it a "microcontinent" before, that's really just a change in terminology...all of the "discoveries" cited in the article have been known for decades.