Responsible field photography on protected volcanic land
A practical sequence for recording context, texture, and light without disturbing the subject.
Complete archive
Field notes
Eight concise entries on the visible properties of volcanic glass, written for careful looking rather than collecting advice or specimen appraisal.
Weathering and hydration: what the eye cannot date
Why visible surface change is not the same thing as a measurable hydration rind.
From lava flow to hand specimen
Relating desk-scale fragments to obsidian domes, talus, pumice, and cooling lava.
Photographing a nearly black surface
A simple reflected-light method for showing luster without flattening texture.
Obsidian and basalt are both dark—then the similarities end
Comparing grain, luster, fracture, composition, and common formation settings.
What makes the “snowflakes”?
Pale spherulites and the slow process by which volcanic glass devitrifies.
Reading a conchoidal fracture
Curved surfaces, ripple marks, bulbs, and the absence of crystal cleavage.
On edge reflections in black volcanic glass
A first observation about thin highlights and hidden fracture curves.