Rock & Mineral Encyclopedia

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

Lake Superior Agate

A glacier-transported banded agate from the Lake Superior region, colored by iron into rich reds and oranges, and Minnesota's state gemstone.

A soft, fine-grained, translucent form of gypsum (or banded calcite) long prized as a carving and ornamental stone.

A banded, metamorphosed iron formation in which bright red jasper alternates with silvery hematite or magnetite layers.

A vivid green hydrous nickel-magnesium silicate that is a major ore of nickel, mined from weathered ultramafic rocks.

A vivid yellow-and-black banded stone from Indonesian volcanic vents, colored by sulfur, arsenic minerals and iron oxides, not true jasper.

Obsidian colored brown by iron oxide inclusions, frequently banded or swirled with black as in mahogany obsidian.

A fine-grained, silica-rich volcanic rock that is the extrusive equivalent of granite, often pale, banded, or flow-textured.

A banded agate whose internal structures resemble cathedral spires, arches, or a city skyline of towers and pinnacles.

A banded agate that displays a moving shadow or flash across its surface when tilted under light, caused by closely spaced parallel bands.