Rock & Mineral Encyclopedia

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

Cathedral Quartz

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

A purple-hued common opal, much of it the Mexican "morado" type, valued for even violet color rather than play-of-color.

A trade name for quartz containing a combination of seven minerals including amethyst, smoky quartz, and cacoxenite, prized by collectors.

Tourmaline colored by copper, producing the famous vivid neon blues, greens and teals known commercially as Paraiba-type gems.

A green-hued banded chalcedony, ranging from natural soft greens to brightly dyed commercial stones.

A yellow to golden banded chalcedony colored by iron, ranging from natural honey tones to dyed commercial stones.

Chromite is the only commercial ore of chromium, a black iron-chromium oxide of the spinel group found in mafic igneous rocks.

A treated chalcedony with a network of crackled veins, usually heated and dyed in vivid colors for affordable, eye-catching beads.