Magma be stored in magma chambers or trans-crustal crystal-rich mush zones. During their storage in the crust, magma compositions may be modified by fractional crystallization, contamination with crustal melts, magma mixing, and degassing. Following their ascent through the crust, magmas may feed a volcano or solidify underground to form an intrusion (e.g., an igneous dike or a sill). While the study of magma has historically relied on observing magma in the form of lava flows, magma has been encountered in situ three times during geothermal drilling projects—twice in Iceland (see Magma usage for energy production), and once in Hawaii. Most magmatic
Obsidian manufacture cutting and piercing tools and it has been used experimentally as surgical scalpel blades. The translation into English of "Natural History" written by Pliny the Elder of Rome shows a few sentences on the subject of a volcanic glass called obsidian ("lapis obsidianus"), discovered in Ethiopia by Obsidius, a Roman explorer. Obsidian is the rock formed as a result of quickly cooled lava, which is the parent material. Extrusive formation of obsidian may occur when felsic lava cools rapidly at the edges of a felsic lava flow or volcanic dome or when lava cools during sudden contact with water