Geography of Seychelles

Geography Of Seychelles

The Seychelles is a small island nation located in the Indian Ocean northeast of Madagascar and about 1,600 km (994 mi) east of Kenya. Seychelles lies between approximately 4ºS and 10ºS and 46ºE and 54ºE. The nation is an archipelago of 155 tropical islands, some granite and some coral. the majority of which are small and uninhabited. The landmass is only 457 km², but the islands are spread over an Exclusive Economic Zone of 1,374,000 km². About 90 percent of the population of 82,500 live on Mahé, 9 percent on Praslin and La Digue. Around a third of the land area is the island of Mahé and a further third the atoll of Aldabra.

There are two distinct regions, the granitic islands, the world's only oceanic islands of granitic rock and the coralline outer islands. The granite islands are the world’s oldest ocean islands, while the outer islands are mainly very young, though the Aldabra group and St Pierre (Farquhar Group) are unusual, raised coral islands that have emerged and submerged several times during their long history, the most recent submergence dating from about 125,000 years ago.