Libin Jose/Alamy
Why is the east coast of Madagascar so straight?
David Bortin
Whittier, California, US
It was discovered about 10 years ago that, some 88 million years prior, the subcontinent of India and the island of Madagascar were neighbours in the ancient landmass called Gondwana. But plate tectonics makes for strange bedfellows, and it gave India the wanderlust to split off and elope with southern Asia, some 4800 km to the north.
The rapid split produced what is described as a “scraping” action that left Madagascar’s east and (to a lesser, but still noticeable extent) India’s south-western shoreline remarkably straight.…
