Snowflake Obsidian

Obsidian is chemically unstable glass, and over time it begins to crystallize at scattered points, forming the cristobalite clusters. Utah, USA, is a major source of snowflake obsidian; Mindat shows specimens from Millard County, Utah, and Catamarca Province, Argentina, and it is also found at Glass Buttes, Oregon.

The white patches are crystal clusters inside the glass, not surface paint. Mindat notes a dark green man-made glass with cristobalite inclusions, produced by error in the glass industry in Denmark, that can resemble it. Natural obsidian may contain crystallites, straight banding or needles, and it can react moderately to very strongly to a magnet; these features help separate it from artificial glass, although none is a definitive test. Jet, chalcedony and black tourmaline (schorl) can look similar, and a refractive index test separates them. Brightly colored or water-clear "obsidian" is often man-made glass.

Obsidian is brittle and chips or breaks easily on impact, and with a hardness of about 5 to 5.5 it scratches easily, so it suits earrings, pendants and brooches better than rings or bracelets. Household dust (hardness about 7) is harder than obsidian, so wipe it with a lint-free cloth instead of scrubbing it dry. Inclusions can expand when heated, so avoid mechanical cleaning systems and use mild soap, a soft brush and warm water.

Obsidian in general has been worked since the Stone Age: it breaks with a conchoidal fracture into very sharp edges, so it was made into knives, arrowheads, spear points and scrapers and was traded over distances of up to about a thousand miles. Ancient people also polished it into mirrors. According to the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder, the name comes from Obsius, who found such a stone in Ethiopia.