Île Platte
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Île Platte, or Platte Island is 135 km south of Mahé, the main island of the Seychelles. At 05°52′S 55°24′E / 5.867°S 55.400°E, it is clearly south of the Seychelles Bank and belongs to the Outer Islands. Île Platte and Coëtivy Island, 171 km further southeast, are together known by the collective term Southern Coral Group.
The island, a low and wooded sand cay, is about 1250 meters long north-south, with a width from 250 m in the south to 550 m in the north, with a land area of 0.65 km2. The island is bisected by a 900-meter-airfield that follow the long north-south axis. There is a small settlement on the western shore with the manager's house and a few guest cottages to the northwest.
Barrier reefs, over which the sea breaks heavily, extend 5 km north, about 0.8 km east, and 2.4 km south of the island, making it a pseudo-atoll. Within the barrier reefs, the lagoon is quite smooth, and landing is safe and easy. A submerged reef rim extends 12 km west and 18 km south of the island, obviously the remnants of a sunken atoll, creating a complex of almost 25 km in length north-south and 14 km in width east-west and covering an area of roughly 270 km2.
There are two passages through the reef on the northwest side, available for small vessels with local knowledge only. La Perle Reef lies at the southwestern end of the reef rim, about 10 km southwest of Platte Island. Depths of less than four meters can exist on this reef where breakers have been observed.
See also
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