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.

Peach Garnet

Peach Garnet

A soft peach to pinkish-orange garnet, usually a malaia-type pyrope-spessartine blend prized for its warm, delicate color.

gemstone

Grape Garnet

A trademarked deep purple-red rhodolite garnet from India, named for its rich grape-like color from the pyrope-almandine series.

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
Idaho Star Garnet

Idaho Star Garnet

Idaho's official state gem: a dark almandine garnet showing a four- or rare six-rayed star from oriented rutile inclusions.

gemstone

Masasi Blue Garnet

Masasi Blue Garnet is a rare vanadium-bearing color-change garnet from Tanzania that appears blue-green by day and purplish-red indoors.

gemstone
Champagne Garnet

Champagne Garnet

A soft brownish-golden garnet named for its champagne color, usually a malaia-type pyrope-spessartine blend prized for warm, neutral tones.

gemstone
Lindi Garnet

Lindi Garnet

Lindi Garnet is a rare vanadium-rich color-change garnet from Tanzania's Lindi region, shifting from blue-green daylight tones to purple-red.

gemstone
Monzonite

Monzonite

An intermediate plutonic rock with nearly equal alkali and plagioclase feldspar and very little quartz, sitting between diorite and syenite.

igneous
Elbaite

Elbaite

The lithium-rich tourmaline species responsible for nearly all gem tourmaline, occurring in every color of the rainbow.

mineral
Grossular Garnet

Grossular Garnet

The calcium-aluminum garnet species spanning green tsavorite, cinnamon hessonite, and colorless leuco garnet — one of the most varied garnets.

gemstone
Schorl

Schorl

The common iron-rich black variety of tourmaline, by far the most abundant tourmaline species and a popular grounding crystal.

mineral
Clear Beryl

Clear Beryl

Transparent, colorless beryl (goshenite), the pure form of the species valued for its clarity, hardness, and well-formed crystals.

gemstone
Andradite Garnet

Andradite Garnet

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

gemstone
Vanadium Tourmaline

Vanadium Tourmaline

Vanadium-colored tourmaline, including the species vanadium dravite, producing rich emerald-green hues similar to chrome tourmaline.

mineral
Olenite

Olenite

A rare aluminum-rich species of the tourmaline group, usually colorless to pale, named for the Olenii Range in Russia's Kola Peninsula.

mineral
Buergerite

Buergerite

A rare iron-rich (ferric) species of the tourmaline group, dark brown to bronze-black, named after crystallographer Martin Buerger.

mineral
Lime Green Tourmaline

Lime Green Tourmaline

A bright, fresh lime to yellowish-green elbaite tourmaline (verdelite), colored by iron and trace manganese for a lively spring-green tone.

gemstone
Granodiorite

Granodiorite

A common coarse-grained intrusive rock like granite but richer in plagioclase than potassium feldspar.

igneous

Cloud Agate

A chalcedony agate with soft, billowing cloud-like masses of gray and white suspended in a translucent body.

gemstone
Leopard Opal

Leopard Opal

A patterned common opal with mottled, leopard-like spots and blotches, prized as an ornamental and cabochon stone.

gemstone
Charnockite

Charnockite

A granite-like rock containing orthopyroxene, formed at high temperatures and pressures and often classed with the granulites.

igneous
Pietersite

Pietersite

A brecciated, chatoyant quartz with swirling blue, gold, and brown fibers that shimmer like a stormy sky.

gemstone
Chrome Diopside

Chrome Diopside

A vivid green chromium-bearing diopside, an affordable emerald-like gem mined largely in Siberia.

gemstone

Cloudy Obsidian

Obsidian with a hazy, cloud-like translucency caused by uneven distribution of tiny bubbles or incipient crystallites in the glass.

igneous