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An outcrop we visited higher up the slope.  The professor is the guy at the far end musing at the lovely rocks.  They may just look like rocks to you, but actually it is amphibole basalt with unusual phenocrysts and xenoliths separated by fine-grained tuff.  Yes, this is how they "explain" stuff!  As far as I can tell, all that it means is, the rock used to be hot and liquid, and contains bits of other types of rocks and crystals.  In this case, a particular mixture of bits of rocks and crystals that is not found anywhere else in the world.

An outcrop we visited higher up the slope. The professor is the guy at the far end musing at the lovely rocks. They may just look like rocks to you, but actually it is amphibole basalt with unusual phenocrysts and xenoliths separated by fine-grained tuff. Yes, this is how they "explain" stuff! As far as I can tell, all that it means is, the rock used to be hot and liquid, and contains bits of other types of rocks and crystals. In this case, a particular mixture of bits of rocks and crystals that is not found anywhere else in the world.