![Geologists take very thin slices of rock and look at them under a microscope to see what minerals make up the rock. This is a photograph taken through a microscope of the interior of a seafloor lava. The large white crystals (red arrow) and the tiny white needles are a mineral called plagioclase. The yellow and green crystals are a mineral called olivine (yellow arrow). The highly colored regions between the plagioclase crystals are another mineral called pyroxene. The dark background is glass that has not been fully crystallized.](3.jpg)
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Geologists take very thin slices of rock and look at them under a microscope
to see what minerals make up the rock. This is a photograph taken through
a microscope of the interior of a seafloor lava. The large white crystals
(red arrow) and the tiny white needles are a mineral called plagioclase. The
yellow and green crystals are a mineral called olivine (yellow arrow). The
highly colored regions between the plagioclase crystals are another mineral
called pyroxene. The dark background is glass that has not been fully crystallized.
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