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Obsidian (/ ə b ˈ s ɪ d i. ən, ɒ b-/ əb-SID-ee-ən ob-) [5] is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth.
Obsidian hydration dating (OHD) is a geochemical method of determining age in either absolute or relative terms of an artifact made of obsidian.. Obsidian is a volcanic glass that was used by prehistoric people as a raw material in the manufacture of stone tools such as projectile points, knives, or other cutting tools through knapping, or breaking off pieces in a controlled manner, such as ...
Volcanic glass is the amorphous (uncrystallized) product of rapidly cooling magma. Like all types of glass , it is a state of matter intermediate between the closely packed, highly ordered array of a crystal and the highly disordered array of liquid . [ 1 ]
Rhyolites that cool too quickly to grow crystals form a natural glass or vitrophyre, also called obsidian. [13] Slower cooling forms microscopic crystals in the lava and results in textures such as flow foliations, spherulitic, nodular, and lithophysal structures. Some rhyolite is highly vesicular pumice. [5]
Obsidian is a common volcanic glass with high silica (SiO 2) ... may be used to increase the cooling rate or to reduce crystal nucleation triggers. ...
Excessive water present during cooling and quenching of rhyolitic lava causes obsidian to hydrate (i.e., water entering the obsidian glass converts it to perlite). Where perlite is incompletely hydrated, fresh obsidian cores remain as pebbles of marekanite, or Apache tears; this origin has been occasionally described in the geologic literature ...
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Examples include obsidian. Pegmatitic texture occurs during magma cooling when some minerals may grow so large that they become massive (the size ranges from a few centimetres to several metres). This is typical of pegmatites .