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.

Gary Green Jasper

An Oregon jasper, also called larsonite, of silicified fossil wood showing olive-green fields laced with black dendritic patterns.

mineral
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
Serpentinite

Serpentinite

A green, often mottled metamorphic rock formed by the hydration of mantle rocks, soft and waxy with a smooth, slippery feel.

metamorphic
Hornblende Schist

Hornblende Schist

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

metamorphic

Frosted Obsidian

Natural obsidian with a frosted, matte surface produced by weathering, abrasion, or etching rather than a separate variety of glass.

igneous
Mint Tourmaline

Mint Tourmaline

A soft, pastel minty-green tourmaline prized for its fresh, light color, a delicate variety of green elbaite.

gemstone
Prasiolite

Prasiolite

A pale green variety of quartz, usually created by heat-treating amethyst, often marketed as green amethyst.

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
Olive Tourmaline

Olive Tourmaline

An earthy olive to yellowish-green tourmaline, a muted green-brown gem variety colored by iron with subtle warm undertones.

gemstone

Mint Opal

A soft mint-green variety of common opal, usually opaque and colored by trace copper or nontronite inclusions rather than play-of-color.

gemstone
Tsavorite Garnet

Tsavorite Garnet

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

gemstone
Tube Agate

Tube Agate

A chalcedony agate containing hollow or mineral-filled tubes that appear as rods, circles, or pipes depending on the angle of the cut.

gemstone

Prase

An old name for a dull leek-green variety of quartz or chalcedony colored by green mineral inclusions, historically called mother of emerald.

crystal

Unakite Jasper

An altered granite of pink feldspar, green epidote and quartz, mottled pink-and-green and popular as a tumbled and carving stone.

metamorphic
Pyrargyrite

Pyrargyrite

A silver antimony sulfosalt known as dark ruby silver, an important silver ore with deep red internal reflections.

mineral

Amegreen

A natural bicolor quartz blending amethyst purple with prasiolite green in a single crystal, prized as a metaphysical heart-crown stone.

crystal
Greensand

Greensand

A green, glauconite-rich marine sandstone that records slow deposition on continental shelves and is used as a soil amendment.

sedimentary
Indian Agate

Indian Agate

An affordable multicolored banded and mossy chalcedony from India, common in tumbled stones, beads, and meditation pieces.

gemstone
Malachite

Malachite

A vivid green copper carbonate mineral famous for swirling concentric bands, used as an ore of copper and an ornamental gemstone.

mineral

Sard

A brownish-red to deep brown variety of chalcedony, closely related to carnelian but darker, colored by iron oxides.

mineral
Maxixe Aquamarine

Maxixe Aquamarine

A deep blue beryl whose intense color comes from radiation-induced color centers and tends to fade in light, named after the Maxixe mine in Brazil.

gemstone
Melteigite

Melteigite

A dark, pyroxene-dominated plutonic rock at the mafic end of the ijolite series, made mainly of aegirine-augite with subordinate nepheline.

igneous

Mint Garnet

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

gemstone
Pyromorphite

Pyromorphite

A lead phosphate secondary mineral known for barrel-shaped green to yellow crystals formed in oxidized lead deposits.

mineral