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.

Lavender Opal

Lavender Opal

A pastel purple variety of common opal, valued for its gentle lilac body color rather than any play-of-color.

gemstone
Pink Tourmaline

Pink Tourmaline

A pink to red gem variety of elbaite tourmaline, colored by manganese, ranging from soft pastel pink to vivid rubellite red.

gemstone
Tiger's Eye

Tiger's Eye

A golden-brown chatoyant quartz with a shimmering silky band of light, formed when quartz replaces fibrous crocidolite.

gemstone
Double Flow Obsidian

Double Flow Obsidian

Obsidian formed from two merged lava flows, producing a stone with two distinct bands of sheen or color.

igneous
Cat's Eye Green Tourmaline

Cat's Eye Green Tourmaline

Green tourmaline cut as a cabochon to show a sharp moving band of light (chatoyancy) caused by fine parallel inclusions.

gemstone
Cherry Creek Jasper

Cherry Creek Jasper

A landscape-patterned Chinese jasper prized for warm cherry-red, cream, and green bands resembling painted scenery.

mineral
Cat's Eye Tourmaline

Cat's Eye Tourmaline

Tourmaline displaying chatoyancy, a moving band of light caused by parallel tube-like inclusions, when cut as a cabochon.

gemstone
Aurora Obsidian

Aurora Obsidian

A trade name for rainbow-sheen obsidian whose aligned nanoparticles produce shifting aurora-like bands of color.

igneous
Verdelite

Verdelite

The classic green gem variety of elbaite tourmaline, ranging from bright grass-green to deep forest tones colored by iron or chromium.

gemstone
Mint Opal

Mint Opal

A soft mint-green variety of common opal, usually opaque and colored by trace copper or nontronite inclusions rather than play-of-color.

gemstone
Chrysoberyl

Chrysoberyl

An exceptionally hard beryllium aluminum oxide prized for golden hues, sharp cat's-eye effect, and the rare color-change alexandrite variety.

gemstone
Hawk's Eye

Hawk's Eye

The blue-grey relative of tiger's eye, a chatoyant quartz showing a shifting band of light like a bird of prey's eye.

gemstone
Cat's Eye Morganite

Cat's Eye Morganite

Pink beryl (morganite) that shows chatoyancy, a moving band of light, when cut as a cabochon, thanks to parallel tube inclusions.

gemstone
Blue Beryl

Blue Beryl

The blue color variety of beryl, ranging from pale sky tones to rich sea-blue, best known in its finest grades as aquamarine.

gemstone
Madagascar Jasper

Madagascar Jasper

A broad family of vividly patterned jaspers from Madagascar, including orbicular and scenic varieties prized for colorful, eye-catching designs.

gemstone
Cat's Eye Opal

Cat's Eye Opal

An opal cut to show chatoyancy, a sharp moving band of light like a cat's eye, usually in honey, green or yellow common opal.

gemstone
Rosterite

Rosterite

An old varietal name for alkali- and cesium-rich beryl, typically colorless to pale pink, overlapping with vorobyevite and morganite.

gemstone
Grossular Garnet

Grossular Garnet

The calcium-aluminum garnet species spanning green tsavorite, cinnamon hessonite, and colorless leuco garnet — one of the most varied garnets.

gemstone