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.

Midnight Lace Obsidian

A black volcanic glass threaded with delicate grey, swirling lace-like bands of flow lines that show beautifully when polished.

igneous
Tourmaline

Tourmaline

A boron-rich silicate gemstone group famous for occurring in every color of the rainbow, sometimes several within a single crystal.

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

Frosted Obsidian

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

igneous
Scenic Jasper

Scenic Jasper

A patterned jasper whose bands and inclusions create miniature landscapes of deserts, mountains, and skies within the stone.

mineral
Pele's Tears

Pele's Tears

Small, smooth, teardrop-shaped beads of basaltic volcanic glass formed from airborne lava droplets, often paired with Pele's hair.

igneous

Dragon Vein Agate

A treated chalcedony with a network of crackled veins, usually heated and dyed in vivid colors for affordable, eye-catching beads.

gemstone
Dendritic Agate

Dendritic Agate

A translucent chalcedony decorated with branching, fern-like manganese or iron oxide inclusions resembling tiny plants.

mineral
Cleavelandite

Cleavelandite

A striking platy, blade-like variety of albite feldspar that grows in fanned aggregates of thin white crystals within granite pegmatites.

mineral
Palagonite

Palagonite

A yellow-brown alteration material formed when basaltic volcanic glass reacts with water, common in hydrovolcanic tuffs and pillow lavas.

igneous

Peanut Wood Jasper

A fossilized, silicified wood from Australia with white peanut-shaped spots, formed where ancient driftwood was bored by clams and filled with pale sediment.

gemstone
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