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.

Rose Tourmaline

Rose Tourmaline

A soft to medium pink elbaite tourmaline in rose hues, colored by manganese and prized for romantic jewelry.

gemstone
Gold

Gold

A dense, soft, intensely yellow native metal valued for millennia in coinage, jewelry, and electronics.

mineral
Jasper

Jasper

An opaque, often colorfully patterned variety of chalcedony quartz, popular for tumbling, carving, and jewelry.

mineral
Howlite

Howlite

A white, porous borate mineral webbed with gray-black veins, widely dyed to imitate turquoise and other stones.

mineral
Blood Agate

Blood Agate

A deep red banded agate colored by iron oxides, valued as a vivid red lapidary and jewelry stone.

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
Cobaltite

Cobaltite

A silver-white cobalt arsenic sulfide that is a leading ore of cobalt, forming bright metallic cubic and pyritohedral crystals.

mineral
Pyrope Garnet

Pyrope Garnet

The magnesium-rich garnet famed for its intense blood-red 'fire,' historically the Bohemian garnet of Victorian jewelry.

gemstone
Black Agate

Black Agate

A deep black variety of banded chalcedony, often closely related to or treated like onyx, used for jewelry and carvings.

gemstone
Morganite Crystal

Morganite Crystal

The natural crystal form of morganite, the manganese-colored pink-to-peach variety of beryl popular in romantic jewelry.

crystal
Black Garnet

Black Garnet

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

gemstone
Melanite Garnet

Melanite Garnet

The titanium-rich black variety of andradite garnet, with a brilliant resinous luster prized for mourning and statement jewelry.

gemstone
Strawberry Garnet

Strawberry Garnet

A bright strawberry-red garnet, typically an almandine-pyrope blend prized for its juicy, lively red color in jewelry.

gemstone
Raspberry Garnet

Raspberry Garnet

A vivid pinkish-red rhodolite garnet named for its raspberry color, a bright pyrope-almandine blend popular in jewelry.

gemstone
White Moonstone

White Moonstone

The classic moonstone: a milky-white feldspar showing the prized floating blue-to-silver adularescent glow that gives the gem its name.

gemstone
Arsenopyrite

Arsenopyrite

A silver-white iron arsenic sulfide and the most common arsenic mineral, known for striking sparks and a garlic smell when struck.

mineral

Orca Agate

A bold black-and-white banded chalcedony named for its orca-like coloring, popular as carvings and statement jewelry.

gemstone
Pastel Tourmaline

Pastel Tourmaline

A trade name for lightly saturated elbaite tourmalines in delicate pastel pinks, mints, peaches, and blues popular in modern jewelry.

gemstone

Apricot Agate

A soft peachy-orange variety of banded chalcedony, naturally iron-tinted or dyed, popular for warm-toned beads and jewelry.

gemstone
London Blue Topaz

London Blue Topaz

The deepest, most saturated blue grade of treated topaz, prized for its rich steely-blue color and durability in jewelry.

gemstone

Jet

A lightweight black organic gemstone formed from fossilized wood under pressure, a type of lignite long used in mourning jewelry.

sedimentary
Bohemian Garnet

Bohemian Garnet

Small, intensely red chrome-pyrope garnets from the Czech Bohemian region, famous for densely set antique Victorian jewelry.

gemstone
Hematite

Hematite

The principal iron ore, a heavy iron oxide ranging from metallic silver-gray to earthy red, always leaving a tell-tale red-brown streak.

mineral
Lotus Jasper

Lotus Jasper

A softly patterned jasper in cream, gray, and tan whose markings can suggest lotus petals, popular for calm, neutral-toned jewelry.

gemstone