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.

Lime Green Tourmaline

Lime Green Tourmaline

A bright, fresh lime to yellowish-green elbaite tourmaline (verdelite), colored by iron and trace manganese for a lively spring-green tone.

gemstone

Green Sheen Obsidian

Black volcanic glass that flashes a green sheen at certain angles due to light interference off aligned microscopic inclusions.

igneous
Yellow-Green Obsidian

Yellow-Green Obsidian

A chartreuse yellow-green glass sold as obsidian; the bright color is manufactured and does not occur in natural volcanic glass.

igneous
Neon Green Tourmaline

Neon Green Tourmaline

An intensely glowing green tourmaline, often copper-bearing, whose electric, almost luminous color recalls paraiba tourmaline.

gemstone
Dark Green Tourmaline

Dark Green Tourmaline

Deeply saturated green tourmaline colored by iron, often so dark it appears nearly black until viewed in bright light.

gemstone
Emerald Green Tourmaline

Emerald Green Tourmaline

A richly saturated green variety of elbaite tourmaline whose color rivals emerald, colored by trace iron, chromium, or vanadium.

gemstone
Forest Green Tourmaline

Forest Green Tourmaline

A deep, rich forest-green elbaite tourmaline (verdelite) colored mainly by iron, with strong pleochroism and excellent durability.

gemstone
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
Cipollino Marble

Cipollino Marble

A green-and-white banded metamorphic marble whose wavy mica layers resemble the rings of a sliced onion.

metamorphic

Riband Agate

A banded chalcedony with straight, ribbon-like parallel layers, often cut across the bands for striking striped cabochons.

gemstone
Aquamarine Matrix

Aquamarine Matrix

Aquamarine crystals still attached to their natural host rock, prized as mineral specimens showing beryl in its original pocket setting.

mineral

Sardonyx

A banded chalcedony combining reddish-brown sard with white or black onyx layers, prized since antiquity for carved cameos.

gemstone
Black Agate

Black Agate

A deep black variety of banded chalcedony, often closely related to or treated like onyx, used for jewelry and carvings.

gemstone
Peacock Opal

Peacock Opal

A precious opal showing dominant peacock-like blue, green and teal play-of-color, often on Ethiopian material.

gemstone

Mint Obsidian

A pale mint-green glass sold as obsidian; most uniform light-green material on the market is manufactured glass rather than natural volcanic obsidian.

igneous
Uvarovite Garnet

Uvarovite Garnet

The rare calcium-chromium garnet, famous for its sparkling emerald-green druzy crusts of tiny crystals, the only consistently green garnet.

mineral
Peridot

Peridot

The gem-quality green variety of olivine, peridot is colored by iron and is one of the few gems found in only one color.

gemstone
Banded Agate

Banded Agate

The classic agate defined by concentric or parallel bands of chalcedony in varied colors, the archetype of all agate varieties.

gemstone
Kyanite

Kyanite

A bladed aluminosilicate famous for having two very different hardnesses depending on the direction you scratch it.

mineral
Travertine

Travertine

A banded, porous limestone deposited by mineral springs, prized as a warm-toned natural building and tile stone.

sedimentary
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
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
Nephrite

Nephrite

One of the two jade minerals, an amphibole prized for its extreme toughness and soft, waxy green hues used in carving for millennia.

gemstone
Chrome-Dravite

Chrome-Dravite

A chromium-dominant tourmaline related to dravite, producing intensely deep green to blackish-green crystals from chromium-rich metamorphic rocks.

mineral