Rock & Mineral Encyclopedia

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

Syenite

A coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock dominated by alkali feldspar with little or no quartz.

A rich green, fuchsite-rich metamorphic rock from southern Africa, prized as a carving and ornamental stone.

A dark gray copper sulfide that is one of the richest copper ores, prized by collectors when found as rare sharp crystals.

A green ornamental stone, often serpentine-rich marble or verde antique, valued for its rich green color and white veining.

A barium-bearing potassium feldspar intermediate between orthoclase and celsian, found in barium-rich metamorphic and ore deposits.

A pale jasper crossed by distinctive blue-gray veins or lines, valued by lapidaries for its calm color contrast.

A gray-brown jasper whose mottled, wrinkled patterning resembles elephant hide, also sold as Miriam or calligraphy stone.

A fine-grained, sodium-rich contact-metasomatic rock formed where shale is albitized next to intruding diabase or spilite.

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

A dark, foliated schist rich in needle-like hornblende crystals, formed by metamorphism of mafic igneous rocks.

The blue-grey relative of tiger's eye, a chatoyant quartz showing a shifting band of light like a bird of prey's eye.

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