A sample of basalt from Davidson seamount in the lab on the Western Flyer after all the silt and slimy living stuff has been cleaned off of it. This photo shows how basalts are typically fine-grained, massive, very dark colored rocks. In fact, it is hard to tell much about oceanic basalts even with a hand lens. That is why we have to use chemical analysis to determine which rocks are related to each other, and where they came from. Image copyright 2000 MBARI.
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