The origin and bloating of the obsidian

Abstract

Among the rocks used to produce heat-insulating and acoustic building materials, volcanic water-containing glassy rocks are increasingly being used. A feature of volcanic water-containing glasses is their ability to expand during heat treatment. Besides perlite, other volcanic glasses known by various names also have this special feature: obsidian, pitchstone, vitrophire, and others. The common property of all these rocks, which determines their expanding power, is the content of water in them, being in various forms of linkage. The main role in the process of their pore formation during bloating belongs to water and various gases located in closed pores. Obsidian is expanded at temperatures of 1050...11500C. The lowest average density of 200 ... 350 kg/m3 (in a piece) is obtained by heat treatment of obsidian for 3 ... 10 minutes (depending on the size of the sample).