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.

Green Quartz

Green Quartz

A green variety of macrocrystalline quartz, usually the heat- or radiation-altered prasiolite, prized for its soft mint hue.

crystal
Elestial Quartz

Elestial Quartz

A quartz with a complex skeletal, layered surface of many terminations and etched recesses, also called skeletal or jacare quartz.

crystal
Cathedral Quartz

Cathedral Quartz

Quartz with a stepped, multi-pointed structure of parallel side crystals resembling the spires of a cathedral.

crystal
Phantom Quartz

Phantom Quartz

Quartz containing visible internal crystal outlines, formed when growth paused and trapped a layer of mineral inclusions.

crystal
Clear Quartz

Clear Quartz

The pure, colorless form of crystalline quartz, valued for its clarity, abundance, and piezoelectric properties used in electronics.

crystal
Blue Quartz

Blue Quartz

A naturally blue quartz colored by tiny mineral inclusions such as dumortierite or scattered rutile and tourmaline fibers.

crystal
Star Rose Quartz

Star Rose Quartz

Rose quartz that displays a six-rayed star (asterism) when cut as a cabochon, caused by microscopic rutile-like inclusions.

gemstone

Lemurian Seed Quartz

Clear quartz crystals marked by distinctive horizontal ladder-like striations, popularized from Brazil as a metaphysical stone.

crystal
Quartz-mica Schist

Quartz-mica Schist

A foliated metamorphic rock of interlayered quartz and mica, producing a sparkling, easily split rock from metamorphosed sandy shales.

metamorphic
Golden Beryl

Golden Beryl

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

gemstone
Golden Emerald

Golden Emerald

A trade name occasionally used for golden-yellow beryl (golden beryl or heliodor), the iron-colored yellow variety of the emerald mineral.

gemstone
Tiger Iron

Tiger Iron

A banded combination rock of golden tiger's eye, red jasper, and metallic hematite, formed in ancient iron deposits.

metamorphic
Ametrine

Ametrine

A natural bicolor quartz that combines purple amethyst and golden citrine in a single crystal.

crystal
Citrine

Citrine

The golden-yellow variety of quartz, ranging from pale lemon to deep madeira amber, often produced by heating amethyst.

gemstone
Yellow Jasper

Yellow Jasper

An opaque yellow-to-golden variety of jasper, an iron-stained microcrystalline quartz prized for warm color and durable polish.

gemstone

Prase

An old name for a dull leek-green variety of quartz or chalcedony colored by green mineral inclusions, historically called mother of emerald.

crystal
Amethyst

Amethyst

The purple variety of quartz, colored by iron and natural irradiation, prized as the classic violet birthstone of February.

crystal
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
Chalcedony

Chalcedony

A waxy, translucent microcrystalline form of quartz that serves as the parent group for agate, jasper, carnelian, and onyx.

mineral
Herkimer Diamond

Herkimer Diamond

Exceptionally clear, naturally double-terminated quartz crystals from Herkimer County, New York, prized for their diamond-like brilliance.

crystal

Amegreen

A natural bicolor quartz blending amethyst purple with prasiolite green in a single crystal, prized as a metaphysical heart-crown stone.

crystal
Brown Jasper

Brown Jasper

An opaque earth-toned jasper colored brown by iron oxides, ranging from pale tan to deep chocolate.

mineral

Nordmarkite

A light-colored alkali quartz syenite dominated by perthitic feldspar with minor quartz, from the Oslo igneous province of Norway.

igneous
Red Jasper

Red Jasper

An opaque, iron-rich variety of microcrystalline quartz known for its deep brick-red color and ancient history as a stone of strength and grounding.

gemstone