Where is Saya de Malha?

The Saya de Malha bank lies on the Masacarene Plateau, or Ridge - a spectacular submerged volcanic feature in the western Indian Ocean. The Mascarene runs about 2,000 km between Seychelles - a remnant of the super-continent Gondwanaland, and Mauritius - a volcanic island. Larger than the Great Barrier Reef and longer than the Red Sea, it is one of the few submerged features clearly visible from space. It covers an area of over 115,000 square kilometres of shallow water with depths ranging from just 8 metres (26 feet) to 150 m (495 ft) on the plateau, plunging to abyssal depths of 4000 m (13,200 ft) at its edges.

Surprisingly little is known or has been published about the Mascarene Plateau. It is an area where a number of oceanic and physical processes can be studied in close proximity, an interface between deep and shallow waters away from the influence of major land masses and their associated impacts. It can be seen as a massive natural marine laboratory.

There are large areas of seagrass on the shallower parts of the plateau and coral in some areas. The name 'Saya de Malha' comes from early Portuguese sailors.

The Saya de Malha exploration and coral ark construction expedition 2002 will be on the North Bank of the Mascarene Plateau, about 370 nautical miles from Victoria in the Seychelles. The location is roughly 9 degrees south and 60 degree east, where the plateau is within 8 or 9 metres of the sea surface. See chart 4702 (1974 with later additions), listed in the South Indian Ocean Pilot (Ninth Edition, 1990) under 10.366 (p. 287).

Thomas Goreau and Wolfgang Hilbertz have been to this area once before, in 1997. Wolf writes:

"We encountered a unique metereological phenomenon on the North Bank: the sea was flatter than a mirror, a cloudless night sky, and the stars were so brilliantly reflected by the sea surface that one was deceived in thinking one saw the sky there. The horizon had shifted and all the gods were enjoying themselves. This clearly was a once-in-a-lifetime and profound experience. Tom can make the scientific explanation available to you".