Geology of Mauritius

Except for beaches and coral reef formation, the island is entirely of volcanic origin.
Three major periods of volcanic activity resulted in the formation of the island.
The first period, called the Emergence and Older Series or the Ancient Series, lasted
from 10 million years ago to about 5 million years ago. This period caused the
emergence of the island. The Ancient series can be further broken down into two
distinct parts: The Breccia Series from 10 million years ago to 7.8 million years ago
and the Old Series Lavas from 7.6 million years ago to 5 million years ago.
The second period called the Early Volcanic Series or Intermediate Series lasted
from 3 million years ago to 1.7 million years ago.
The third period called the Younger Series or the Recent Series lasted from 700,000
years ago to 20,000 years ago.
The geology of the island is essentially basalt everywhere. But the three main
phases of volcanic activity has given rise to different types of rock.
The lithology is basalt but the different phases have given rise to different types of
rocks: extrusives ranging from intermediate to mafic composition, intrusives/porphyry
present in dykes.
The following is the list of the numerous rock types in Mauritius

Basalt

Oceanite

Ankaramite

Andesite

Trachyte

The soils of Mauritius have been subdivided, based on their agricultural importance,
into two main groups:
1. Mature ferrallitic soils or latosols: residual soils in which all minerals have
completely decomposed; referred to as zonal soils
2. Immature soils (latosolic): properties affected by the presence of minerals still in
the process of weathering; referred to as intrazonal Soils
It is to be noted that azonal soils have little or no profile development.
Zonal soils have been developed from soils of the Early (Intermediate) Series under
mean annual rainfall from <1000mm to >5000mm.

Intrazonal soils have been developed under conditions where effect of vegetation
and climate are masked by local factors of environment such as relief, drainage and
composition of parent rock.

References
Proag, V. (1995). The Geology and Water Resources of Mauritius. Mauritius,
Mahatma Gandhi Institute.