Specific geological formations and oceanic crust lie beneath the Maldives
the verdict
INSUFFICIENT LEANING
refutedsupported
the weight of evidence
3 sources for · 0 against
The retrieved sources broadly associate the Maldives with the Indian subcontinent and mention oceanic reefs or Indian Ocean volcanic activity, but they do not comprehensively detail the specific geological formations and oceanic crust lying beneath the Maldives.
Increasing frequency and severity of disturbances is causing global degradation of coral reef ecosystems. This study examined temporal changes in live coral cover and coral composition in the central Maldives from 1997 to 2016, encompassing two bleaching events, a tsunami, and an outbreak of Acanthaster planci. We also examined the contemporary size structure for five dominant coral taxa (tabular Acropora, Acropora muricata, Acropora humilis, Pocillopora spp, and massive Porites). Total coral cover increased throughout the study period, with marked increases following the 1998 mass-bleaching. The relative abundance of key genera has changed through time, where Acropora and Pocillopora (which are highly susceptible to bleaching) were under-represented following 1998 mass-bleaching but increased until outbreaks of A. planci in 2015. The contemporary size-structure for all coral taxa was dominated by larger colonies with peaked distributions suggesting that recent disturbances had a disproportionate impact on smaller colonies, or that recruitment is currently limited. This may suggest that coral resilience has been compromised by recent disturbances, and further bleaching (expected in 2016) could lead to highly protracted recovery times. We showed that Maldivian reefs recovered following the 1998 mass-bleaching event, but it took up to a decade, and ongoing disturbances may be eroding reef resilience.
Sci Rep Sci Rep 1579 scirep Scientific Reports 2045-2322 Nature Publishing Group PMC5046149 PMC5046149.1 5046149 5046149 27694823 10.1038/srep34720 srep34720 1 Article Coral recovery in the central Maldives archipelago since the last major mass-bleaching, in 1998 Pisapia C. a 1 Burn D. 2 Yoosuf R. 3 Najeeb A. 3 Anderson K. D. 1 Pratchett M. S.
This study examined temporal changes in live coral cover and coral composition in the central Maldives from 1997 to 2016, encompassing two bleaching events, a tsunami, and an outbreak of Acanthaster planci . We also examined the contemporary size structure for five dominant coral taxa (tabular Acropora , Acropora muricata , Acropora humilis , Pocillopora spp , and massive Porites ). Total coral cover increased throughout the study period, with marked increases following the 1998 mass-bleaching.
The purpose of this study was to explore trajectories in coral cover and composition within
Importantly, we tested whether spatial variation in the contemporary structure of coral assemblages was related to differences in abiotic factors such as depth and reef typology (e.g., oceanic versus lagoonal reefs) to test whether such factors confer increased resilience on coral reef habitats 38 . Given widespread degradation of coral reef ecosystems there is increasing impetus for identifying specific reef types or environmental settings that confer increased resilience 38 , prioritizing conservation of such locations to mediate longer-term effects of changing disturbances regimes and importantly assessing the fate of coral assemblages given the recurrence of mass bleaching in 2016 39 .
muricata ) ( Table 2 ; Tukey test > 0.005). Spatial variation in colony surface was not related to depth and was generally similar between oceanic versus lagoonal reefs ( Table 2 ). However, colonies were slightly larger colonies on oceanic reefs for both Porites and Pocillopora (Tukey test < 0.05). Discussion This study shows that coral assemblages in the Maldives recovered (albeit relatively slowly) in the aftermath of the 1998 mass coral bleaching event, whereby coral cover increased from 1.69% (±3.59) to 37.4% (±1.03) by 2009 (average annual rate of change in coral cover was 93.5% ± 3.08).
On Kenyan reefs Pocillopora and Acropora started to recruit in 2001 45 , whereas recruits of Acropora and Pocillopora where not apparent in the Maldives until 2009–2014 31 , and in 2001 Pavona was the most dominant recruit 46 . Rapid recovery of degraded reefs is largely dependent on the growth of remnant corals 5 30 whereas recruitment and subsequent growth of new colonies can greatly extend recovery times.
Importantly, Maldives are experiencing rapidly increasing human pressures due to coastal development and ongoing increases in tourism 37 , such that there is a definite need to implement a systematic and sustained monitoring program, both to document specific and cumulative effects of increasing disturbances and identify effective management solutions.
Ongoing resilience of coral assemblages in the Maldives, necessary for recovery between successive major disturbances, is therefore conditional upon effective management of anthropogenic activities to minimize chronic disturbances. Spatial variation (among sites) in recovery of coral assemblages in the Maldives partly reflects inherent variation in coral composition, and specifically the functional composition of coral assemblages.
Difference in surface area of living tissue (SA) among species were tested using a One-way ANOVA and a Tukey’s post hoc test was then utilized to determine specific differences among species. All the analyses were run using R vs 3.3.1. Additional Information How to cite this article : Pisapia, C. et al. Coral recovery in the central Maldives archipelago since the last major mass-bleaching, in 1998. Sci. Rep. 6 , 34720; doi: 10.1038/srep34720 (2016). Supplementary Material Supplementary Information Figure 1 Variation in mean (±95% CL) coral cover at 5 meters in all study sites. The occurrence of the 1998 and 2010 coral bleaching events, the tsunami in 2004 and outbreaks of A.
Atoll Type Site Position Latitude Longitude North Male Uninhabited Udhafushi Lagoon 4 18.47′N 73 30.14′E North Male Resort Bandos Lagoon 4 16.26′N 73 29.29′E Ari Atoll Resort Velidhu Lagoon 4 11.34′N 72 49.10′E Ari Atoll Resort Fesdu Lagoon 4 0.31′N 72 48.35′E North Male Uninhabited Rasfari Oceanic 4 36.19′N 73 35.90′E South Male Uninhabited Emboodhu Oceanic 4 7.77′N 73 28.19′E North Male Uninhabited KudaKandu Oceanic 4 36.19′N 73 35.90′E
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a term mainly used for the geographic region which includes: Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Republic of India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. It is north of the Indian Ocean. It is south of the Himalayas, one of the world's largest ranges of tall mountains.[1]
The subcontinent was once part of Gondwana, the ancient southern supercontinent. Geologically, the origin of the Himalayas is the impact of the Indian tectonic plate travelling northward at 15 cm per year to slowly squeeze the Eurasian continent, about 40-50 million years ago.[2][3] The formation of the Himalayan arc resulted in the rock of the seabeds of that time being uplifted into mountains. An often-cited fact used to illustrate this process is that the summit of Mount Everest is made of marine limestone.[4]
About 50 million years ago, this fast moving plate had completely closed the Tethys Ocean. The existence of the Tethys has been proved by sedimentary rocks settled on the ocean floor, and the volcanoes that fringed its edges. Since these sediments were light, they crumpled into mountain ranges rather than sank to the floor.
The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Although the terms Indian subcontinent and South Asia are often also used interchangeably to denote a wider region which includes, in addition, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, the Indian subcontinent term is more geophysical, whereas South Asia is more geopolitical. South Asia is also frequently defined to include Afghanistan, which is not considered part of the subcontinent even in extended usage.
Before the Indian plate rifted from Gondwana and drifted northward toward Eurasia, two other landmasses, the Qiangtang terrane and Lhasa terrane, had accreted to Eurasia. The Qiantang and Lhasa terranes were part of the string of microcontinents Cimmeria, today constituting parts of Turkey, Iran, Pakistan (including the Karakoram), China, Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia, which closed the Paleo-Tethys Ocean above them and opening the Neo-Tethys Ocean between them and Gondwana, eventually colliding with Eurasia, and creating the Cimmerian Orogeny.
After the Lhasa terrane had adjoined Eurasia, an active continental margin opened along its southern flank, below which the Neo-Tethys oceanic plate had begun to subduct. Magmatic activity along this flank produced the Gangdese batholith in what is today the Tibetan trans-Himalaya. Another subduction zone opened to the west, in the ocean basin above the Kohistan-Ladakh island arc. This island arc—formed by one oceanic plate subducting beneath another, its magma rising and creating continental crust—drifted north, closed its ocean basin and collided with Eurasia. Ladakh is today in the Indian-administered region of Kashmir and Kohistan in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, both on the Indian subcontinent.
The collision of India with Eurasia closed the Neo-Tethys Ocean. The suture zone (in this instance, the remnants of the Neo-Tethys subduction zone pinched between the two continental crusts), which marks India's welding to Eurasia, is called the Indus-Yarlung suture zone. It lies north of the Himalayas. The headwaters of the Indus River and the Yarlung Tsangpo (later in its course, the Brahmaputra) flow along this suture zone. These two Eurasian rivers, whose courses were continually diverted by the rising Himalayas, define the western and eastern limits, respectively, of the Himalayan mountain range.
existence to the volcanic agencies which are known to extend from Sumatra across this part of the Indian Ocean . The Laccadives and Maldives are groups of
and commonly rise into the regions of perpetual snow; between the flanks of these lie valleys, closely hemmed in, usually narrow, having a very moderate inclination, but at intervals opening out into wide plains, and occupied either by rivers, or frequently by lakes from which there is no outflow and the waters of which are salt. The eastern termination of Tibet is in the line of snowy mountains which flanks China on the west, between the 27th and 35th parallels of latitude, and about 103° east.
H.* )    ​ Geology The geology of Asia is so complex and over wide areas so little known that it is difficult to give a connected account of either the structure or the development of the continent, and only the broader features can be dealt with here. In the south, in Syria, Arabia and the peninsula of India, none but the oldest rocks are folded, and the Upper Palaeozoic, the Mesozoic and the Tertiary beds lie almost horizontally upon them. It is a region of quiescence or of faulting, but not of folding.
The present outline of the eastern coast and the nearly enclosed seas which lie between the islands and the mainland, are attributed by Richthofen chiefly to simple faulting. Little is known of the early geological history of Asia beyond the fact that a large part of the continent was covered by the sea during the Cambrian and Ordovician periods. But there is positive evidence that much of the north and east of Asia has been land since the Palaeozoic era, and it has been conclusively proved that the peninsula of India has never been beneath the sea since the Carboniferous period at least.
Between these ancient land masses lies an area in which marine deposits of Mesozoic age are well developed and which was evidently beneath the sea during the greater part of the Mesozoic era. The northern land-mass has been named Angaraland by E. Suess; the southern, of which the Indian peninsula is but a fragment, is called Gondwanaland by Neumayr, Suess and others; while the intervening sea is the central Mediterranean sea of Neumayr and the Tethys of Suess.
Farther south, in the Chinese provinces of Shansi and Shensi, the geological succession is similar in some respects to that of the Siberian Palaeozoic plateau, but the sequence is more complete. There is again a floor of folded Archean rocks overlaid by nearly horizontal strata of Lower Palaeozoic age; but these are followed by marine beds belonging to the Carboniferous period. From the Upper Carboniferous onward, however, no marine deposits are known; and, as in Siberia, plant-bearing beds are met with.
The formation of this and of the other great mountain chains of central Asia resulted in the isolation of portions of the former central sea; and the same forces finally led to the elevation of the whole region and the union of the old continents of Angara and Gondwana. Gondwanaland, however, did not long survive, and the portion which lay between India and South Africa sank beneath the waves in Tertiary times. Leaving out of consideration all evidence of more ancient volcanic activity, each of the three regions, into which, as we have seen, the continent may be divided, has been, during or since the Cretaceous period, the seat of great volcanic eruptions.
In the southern region of unfolded beds are found the lavas of the “harras” of Arabia, and in India the extensive flows of the Deccan Trap. In the central folded belt lie the great volcanoes, now mostly extinct, of Asia Minor, Armenia, Persia and Baluchistan. In Burma also there is at least one extinct volcano. In the northern unfolded region great flows of basic lava lie directly upon the Cambrian and Ordovician beds of Siberia, but are certainly in part of Tertiary age. Similar flows on a smaller scale occur in Manchuria, Korea and northern China.
In all these cases, however, the eruptions have now almost ceased; and the great volcanoes of the present day lie in the islands off the eastern and south-eastern coasts. References .—E. Suess, Das Antlitz der Erde (see, especially, vol. iii. part 1.); F. V. Richthofen, “Ueber Gestalt und Gliederung einer Grundlinie in der Morphologie Ost-Asiens,” Sitz. k. preuss. Akad. Wiss. (Berlin, 1900), pp. 888-925, and “Geomorphologische Studien aus Ostasien,” ibid. , 1901, pp. 782-808, 1902, pp. 944-975, 1903, pp. 867-918.  ( P. La. )  Climate.
The isothermals of mean annual temperature lie over northern Asia on curves tolerably regular in their outline, having their western branches in a somewhat higher latitude than their eastern; a reduction of 1° of latitude corresponds approximately—and irrespective of modifications due to elevation—to a rise of ½° Fahr., as far say as 30° N, where the mean temperature is about 75° Fahr. Farther south the increase is slower, and the highest mean temperature anywhere attained in southern Asia is not much above 82° Fahr.
The diurnal mountain winds are very strongly marked on the Himalaya, where they probably are the most active agents in determining the precipitation of rain along the chain—the monsoon currents, as before stated, not penetrating among the mountains. The formation of dense banks of cloud in the afternoon, when the up wind is strongest, along the southern face of the snowy ranges of the Himalaya, is a regular daily phenomenon during the hotter months of the year, and heavy rain,
To this day hymns are unwittingly sung to Bacchus in the dales and glens of Kafiristan. The ethnographical status of the mixed tribes of the mountains that lie between Chitral and the Peshawar plains has been fairly well fixed by John Biddulph, and much patient inquiry in the vast fields of Baluchistan by Major Mockler, G. P. Tate and others has resulted in quite a new appreciation of the tribal origin of the great conglomeration of Baluch peoples.
Everything we examined (3)
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