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.

Anorthosite

Anorthosite

An intrusive igneous rock made almost entirely of plagioclase feldspar, famous as the rock of the lunar highlands.

igneous
Albitite

Albitite

A pale rock made almost entirely of the sodium feldspar albite, formed by sodic magmatism or sodium metasomatism.

igneous
Trachyte

Trachyte

A fine-grained volcanic rock dominated by alkali feldspar, the extrusive equivalent of syenite.

igneous
Rainforest Jasper

Rainforest Jasper

An Australian green rhyolite with eye-like orbs and earthy patterns marketed as jasper, evoking dense rainforest foliage.

igneous
Devitrified Obsidian

Devitrified Obsidian

Obsidian that has partly crystallized over time, growing pale spherulite clusters within the black glass, as in snowflake obsidian.

igneous
Greywacke

Greywacke

A hard, dark, poorly sorted sandstone with a muddy matrix, typically deposited by underwater turbidity currents.

sedimentary
Shonkinite

Shonkinite

A dark, mafic potassic alkaline rock rich in augite with alkali feldspar and often nepheline, classically forming the base of layered sills.

igneous
Naujaite

Naujaite

A sodalite-rich agpaitic nepheline syenite with poikilitic texture from the Ilimaussaq complex, packed with blue sodalite, eudialyte and arfvedsonite.

igneous
Vogesite

Vogesite

A dark hornblende-rich lamprophyre dike rock with amphibole and augite phenocrysts in an alkali-feldspar-dominated groundmass.

igneous
Felsite

Felsite

A general term for light-colored, fine-grained volcanic rocks rich in quartz and feldspar, like rhyolite.

igneous
Fenite

Fenite

A metasomatic rock formed when alkali-rich fluids from carbonatite or alkaline intrusions transform surrounding country rock.

metamorphic
Minette

Minette

A dark, mica-rich lamprophyre dike rock in which biotite and augite phenocrysts sit in a groundmass dominated by alkali feldspar.

igneous
Spherulitic Obsidian

Spherulitic Obsidian

Obsidian containing spherulites — small radiating spheres of feldspar and cristobalite that crystallized within the cooling volcanic glass.

igneous
Tonalite

Tonalite

A quartz-rich plutonic rock dominated by plagioclase feldspar with little alkali feldspar, closely related to granodiorite and quartz diorite.

igneous
Granodiorite

Granodiorite

A common coarse-grained intrusive rock like granite but richer in plagioclase than potassium feldspar.

igneous
Lujavrite

Lujavrite

A dark, layered agpaitic nepheline syenite rich in sodic pyroxene and amphibole with eudialyte, from the Lovozero and Ilimaussaq complexes.

igneous
Luxullianite

Luxullianite

A distinctive tourmaline-rich granite from Cornwall, prized as an ornamental stone for its pink feldspar set with radiating black tourmaline.

igneous
Rossmanite

Rossmanite

A rare lithium-aluminum tourmaline with a vacant X site, typically pale pink to colorless and found in lithium pegmatites.

mineral
Gahnite

Gahnite

A hard zinc-rich member of the spinel group, usually dark blue-green to black, forming octahedral crystals in metamorphic and pegmatitic rocks.

mineral