geology of madagascar unlike the nearby islands, mauritius,
reunion, rodrigues and the comoros, madagascar is not the
product of volcanic activity although the volcanism is the
source of some attractions and sights such as the amber
mountain, the massif of ankaratra and lake itasy. from
geological point of view, madagascar is regarded as a
continental island which owes its formation to the process of
plate tectonic and continental drift. the theory of continental
drift was developed by the german meteorologist wegener in the
early 20th century. wegener noted that the contours of the coast
of south america espouse those of africa. from that observation
it was deduced that those two continents were part of a single
one, a large continent, the gondwanaland, which broke away from
an original super-continent pangea. the african continent, the
island of madagascar, the south american continent, australia,
antarctica and the indian sub-continent as we know them today
were all part of the same continent gondwanaland