What fruits and vegetables might you be able to grow? What animals inhabit your area? What tools would you need to survive? Now think about how you would go about making the tools you would need. Think about what sources of food would be available to you. Are you up for a challenge? Pretend that you're an ancient settler living in your area.How sharp do you think these tools were? What might they have been used for? Do you think it would have been easy to make ancient tools out of obsidian? Why or why not? What do you think they looked like? Jump online to check out Obsidian Tools to see some examples of ancient tools made from obsidian.Which pictures interest you the most? Why? Share what you learned with a friend or family member! No problem! Just jump online to check out Obsidian Gallery to see pictures of obsidian. Are you familiar with the many varieties of obsidian? If you don't live in an area known for obsidian, you might not have ever seen obsidian up close in any of its varieties.We hope you enjoyed learning more about obsidian! Keep exploring by checking out the following activities with a friend or family member: Yes, we've come a long way from the Stone Age, but modern scientists have discovered that obsidian's unique properties still make it an ideal material to make surgical scalpels that have cutting edges that are thinner and sharper than the best surgical steel! Perhaps the most popular modern use of obsidian is still as a cutting tool. Unfortunately, it is not very hard, which makes it easy to scratch and break. From reflective beads to interesting gemstones, obsidian makes beautiful jewelry. Its smooth, glassy texture makes it popular as a raw material used to make jewelry. Today, obsidian still has important uses. It probably did not take ancient peoples long to discover that its glassy surface could be shined to create a reflective surface suitable as a mirror. Obsidian's glassy texture also made it a good source for the earliest mirrors. Some ancient peoples may have transported their obsidian goods thousands of miles to trade for other goods and services. Some historians believe obsidian may have been the first material actively mined and used to manufacture large amounts of sharp tools to be used for trade. All sorts of prehistoric artifacts made from obsidian have been found by archeologists, including knives, arrow heads, spear points, and scrapers. Over time, ancient peoples learned to break obsidian into tools of various shapes. This feature is why one of the first primitive uses of obsidian was as a cutting tool. That means obsidian breaks into pieces with curved surfaces that are razor thin and extremely sharp. Geologists call the way obsidian breaks a conchoidal fracture. One of the most unique features of obsidian is how it breaks. Obsidian can also be found in Hawaii and Alaska. In the contiguous United States, you'll only find obsidian west of the Mississippi River in states such as Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming. For example, significant deposits of obsidian can be found in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Argentina, Chile, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Iceland, Russia, New Zealand, Japan, and Kenya. Obsidian can be found all over the world in areas with volcanic activity. If trace elements are present in the rock, it might also take on rarer shades, such as red, orange, yellow, or blue. Black is the most common color of obsidian, although it can also often be found in shades of brown and green. When most people think of obsidian, they think of a deep black, glassy stone. Obsidian is usually considered an extrusive rock, because it usually solidifies above Earth's surface where the edges of a lava flow come into contact with cool air or water. Obsidian is quite unique due to its smooth, uniform volcanic glass texture. When that happens the molten magma forms an igneous rock known as obsidian. In fact, sometimes molten magma comes into contact with the air or water on Earth's surface and cools so rapidly that its atoms don't have time to form a regular crystalline structure. While many such television shows and movies about volcanoes may have many details that aren't exactly supported by science, it is true that molten magma can be cooled to form a solid. Have you ever seen a movie or television show in which a hero saves a town from sure destruction by stopping a lava flow from an exploding volcano? If so, the hero in the show may have done so by creating a cooling barrier to turn the molten magma into a solid rock.
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