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.

Honey Garnet

Honey Garnet

A warm golden-brown garnet named for its honey color, typically a hessonite grossular variety with a distinctive treacly internal texture.

gemstone
Hydrogrossular Garnet

Hydrogrossular Garnet

A water-bearing massive grossular garnet, usually green or pink, widely used as a tough jade-like carving stone.

gemstone
Imperial Garnet

Imperial Garnet

A trade name for high-brilliance golden grossular-andradite (grandite) garnet, most associated with the Mali deposits of West Africa.

gemstone
Yellow Garnet

Yellow Garnet

A trade term for yellow garnets, including golden grossular, yellow andradite (topazolite), and yellow-green Mali garnet.

gemstone
Topazolite Garnet

Topazolite Garnet

A rare yellow to golden variety of andradite garnet, the topaz-colored cousin of green demantoid, prized for high dispersion and brilliance.

gemstone
Hessonite Garnet

Hessonite Garnet

The cinnamon-to-honey colored variety of grossular garnet, prized in jewelry and revered as the gem 'gomed' in Vedic astrology.

gemstone

Bekily Garnet

A rare color-change garnet from Bekily, Madagascar, shifting from bluish-green in daylight to purplish-red under warm light, including the famed blue garnets.

gemstone

Grandite Garnet

Grandite is an intermediate garnet between grossular and andradite, common in skarns and prized for vivid green to golden crystals.

mineral
Chocolate Garnet

Chocolate Garnet

A rich brown variety of andradite (or grossular-andradite) garnet, marketed for its warm chocolate color and notable brilliance.

gemstone
Mandarin Garnet

Mandarin Garnet

The intensely glowing orange variety of spessartine garnet, prized for its pure 'Fanta-orange' fire and high brilliance.

gemstone
Rosolite Garnet

Rosolite Garnet

A rose-pink variety of grossular garnet from Mexico, also known as landerite or xalostocite, prized for its soft pink color.

gemstone
Garnet Schist

Garnet Schist

A shiny, foliated schist studded with red garnet crystals that grew during medium-grade regional metamorphism.

metamorphic

Jelly Garnet

Jelly Garnet is a translucent grossular garnet whose soft, glassy, gummy-looking body gives it a jelly-like appearance.

gemstone
Star Garnet

Star Garnet

A rare almandine garnet that displays a four- or six-rayed star (asterism) from oriented rutile inclusions; the state gem of Idaho.

gemstone

Mint Garnet

A delicate pastel-green grossular garnet, lighter than tsavorite, most famously from the Merelani Hills of Tanzania.

gemstone
Tsavorite Garnet

Tsavorite Garnet

A brilliant green grossular garnet colored by chromium and vanadium, rivaling emerald with superior brilliance and durability.

gemstone
Green Garnet

Green Garnet

An umbrella term for green members of the garnet group, including prized tsavorite, demantoid, and rare chrome-rich uvarovite.

gemstone

Leuco Garnet

The rare colorless variety of grossular garnet, a near-flawless transparent gem free of the iron and chromium that color most garnets.

gemstone
Andradite Garnet

Andradite Garnet

The calcium-iron garnet species, ranging from brilliant green demantoid to golden topazolite and jet-black melanite.

gemstone
Black Garnet

Black Garnet

An opaque black garnet — typically titanium-bearing melanite andradite — historically cut for mourning and Victorian jewelry.

gemstone
Ceylon Garnet

Ceylon Garnet

Ceylon Garnet is a historic trade name for fine red almandine (and hessonite) garnet from the gem gravels of Sri Lanka.

gemstone
Mali Garnet

Mali Garnet

A rare grossular-andradite blend ('grandite') from Mali, prized for its high brilliance and golden-green to yellow color.

gemstone
Orange Garnet

Orange Garnet

A trade term for orange garnets, mainly manganese-rich spessartine and the brownish hessonite variety of grossular.

gemstone

Montana Garnet

Montana Garnet is red almandine recovered from Montana placer gravels, often alongside the state's famous sapphires.

gemstone