Rock & Mineral Encyclopedia

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

Tourmalinated Quartz

Clear or milky quartz threaded with black needles of tourmaline (schorl), combining quartz clarity with dramatic dark inclusions.

Tabular quartz crossed by a milky white thread-like line marking where the crystal repeatedly cracked and re-healed.

A foliated metamorphic rock dominated by quartz with enough mica to give it a schistose, splitting fabric.

A clean, mature sandstone made almost entirely of quartz grains, representing extreme weathering, sorting, and recycling of sediment.

Opal without play-of-color, valued for solid body hues; also called potch, it occurs in a wide range of colors worldwide.