Pele's hair
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Pele's hair is the name given to clumps of basalt fibers formed from volcanic glass when lava is stretched into thin strands during cooling, usually from lava fountains, lava cascades, or fierce lava
Pele's hair, with a hand lens as scale
Strands of Pele's hair viewed under microscope
First description by J. Dana, 1849
Pele's hair caught on a radio antenna mounted on the south rim of Puʻu ʻŌʻō, Hawaiʻi, July 22, 2005
Volcanic glass
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Volcanic glass is the amorphous 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 hi
Pele's hair
…Pele's hair is the name given to clumps of basalt fibers formed from volcanic glass when lava is stretched into thin strands during cooling, usually from lava fountains, lava cascades, or fierce lava flows. They are named after Pele…
A sand grain of volcanic glass under the petrographic microscope. Its amorphous nature makes it disappear in cross-polarized light (bottom frame). The scale box is in millimeters.
Volcanic glass (“Pele’s hair”) from Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii. Photo by Douglaspperkins, 2006. Public domain.