Rock Identifier

Rock & Mineral Encyclopedia

Search and identify 1,000+ rocks, minerals, crystals, and gemstones — with properties, formation, colors, hardness, and how to tell them apart.

Dalmatian Stone

Dalmatian Stone

A cream-colored feldspar-and-quartz rock peppered with dark spots, named for its resemblance to a Dalmatian dog.

igneous
Tsavorite Garnet

Tsavorite Garnet

A brilliant green grossular garnet colored by chromium and vanadium, rivaling emerald with superior brilliance and durability.

gemstone
Rosolite Garnet

Rosolite Garnet

A rose-pink variety of grossular garnet from Mexico, also known as landerite or xalostocite, prized for its soft pink color.

gemstone
Leuco Garnet

Leuco Garnet

The rare colorless variety of grossular garnet, a near-flawless transparent gem free of the iron and chromium that color most garnets.

gemstone
Demantoid Garnet

Demantoid Garnet

A rare green andradite garnet famed for fire exceeding diamond and distinctive horsetail inclusions in Russian stones.

gemstone
Aquamarine

Aquamarine

The serene blue-to-sea-green variety of beryl, aquamarine is a durable gemstone colored by trace iron and birthstone for March.

gemstone
White Garnet

White Garnet

The rare colorless-to-white grossular garnet, also called leuco garnet, prized by collectors for its purity and unusual lack of color.

gemstone
Tanzanite

Tanzanite

A blue-violet zoisite found only in Tanzania, famous for its vivid trichroic color and rarity.

gemstone
Honey Garnet

Honey Garnet

A warm golden-brown garnet named for its honey color, typically a hessonite grossular variety with a distinctive treacly internal texture.

gemstone
Emerald

Emerald

The green chromium- and vanadium-colored variety of beryl, one of the four classic precious gemstones renowned for its rich green color.

gemstone
Black Garnet

Black Garnet

An opaque black garnet — typically titanium-bearing melanite andradite — historically cut for mourning and Victorian jewelry.

gemstone
Yellow Garnet

Yellow Garnet

A trade term for yellow garnets, including golden grossular, yellow andradite (topazolite), and yellow-green Mali garnet.

gemstone
Wehrite

Wehrite

An ultramafic rock of olivine and clinopyroxene, a peridotite variety common as cumulate layers in mafic intrusions.

igneous
Goshenite Crystal

Goshenite Crystal

The pure colorless variety of beryl, valued as crystal specimens and as a brilliant alternative to clearer gemstones.

crystal
Achroite

Achroite

The rare colorless variety of tourmaline, named from the Greek for 'without color' and prized by collectors.

gemstone
Iolite

Iolite

The gem variety of cordierite, famous for strong pleochroism that shifts from violet-blue to near-colorless.

gemstone
Emerald Crystal

Emerald Crystal

The natural crystalline form of emerald, the prized green chromium-and-vanadium variety of beryl and the May birthstone.

crystal
White Topaz

White Topaz

A colorless, transparent variety of topaz valued as an affordable, hard, brilliant alternative to diamond in jewelry.

gemstone
Lodestone

Lodestone

A naturally magnetized variety of magnetite that attracts iron, historically used as the first magnetic compass.

mineral
Hessonite Garnet

Hessonite Garnet

The cinnamon-to-honey colored variety of grossular garnet, prized in jewelry and revered as the gem 'gomed' in Vedic astrology.

gemstone
Golden Beryl

Golden Beryl

The pure golden-yellow gem variety of beryl, colored by iron and valued for its clarity, brilliance, and durability.

gemstone
Canary Tourmaline

Canary Tourmaline

The vivid, pure yellow tourmaline marketed as canary, a rare manganese-rich variety from Zambia and Malawi.

gemstone
Goshenite

Goshenite

The colorless variety of beryl, named after Goshen, Massachusetts, prized for its purity, clarity, and durability.

gemstone
Websterite

Websterite

A variety of pyroxenite composed of both orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene with little olivine, found in layered intrusions and the mantle.

igneous