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.

Carnelian

Carnelian

A warm orange-to-red variety of chalcedony quartz colored by iron oxide, used since antiquity for seals, beads, and cabochons.

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
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
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
Wulfenite

Wulfenite

A lead molybdate mineral famous for thin, brilliant orange to yellow tabular crystals, prized by collectors and an ore of molybdenum.

mineral
Cinnamon Stone

Cinnamon Stone

The warm cinnamon-to-honey-brown variety of grossular garnet, also known as hessonite, with a characteristic swirly internal texture.

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

Sunset Tourmaline

A warm-hued tourmaline blending orange, pink and red tones reminiscent of a sunset sky.

gemstone
Citrine

Citrine

The golden-yellow variety of quartz, ranging from pale lemon to deep madeira amber, often produced by heating amethyst.

gemstone
Amethyst

Amethyst

The purple variety of quartz, colored by iron and natural irradiation, prized as the classic violet birthstone of February.

crystal

Sunset Opal

An opal with warm sunset hues of orange, amber, and red, prized for its glowing fiery body color reminiscent of dusk skies.

gemstone
Mandarin Garnet

Mandarin Garnet

The intensely glowing orange variety of spessartine garnet, prized for its pure 'Fanta-orange' fire and high brilliance.

gemstone
Fire Opal

Fire Opal

A translucent to transparent opal in warm yellow, orange, and red tones, prized for body color rather than play-of-color.

gemstone
Chalcedony

Chalcedony

A waxy, translucent microcrystalline form of quartz that serves as the parent group for agate, jasper, carnelian, and onyx.

mineral
Ametrine

Ametrine

A natural bicolor quartz that combines purple amethyst and golden citrine in a single crystal.

crystal
Prasiolite

Prasiolite

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

gemstone
Herkimer Diamond

Herkimer Diamond

Exceptionally clear, naturally double-terminated quartz crystals from Herkimer County, New York, prized for their diamond-like brilliance.

crystal

Peach Moonstone

A warm peach-to-apricot variety of moonstone feldspar showing a soft billowy sheen (adularescence) caused by internal light scattering.

gemstone

Amegreen

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

crystal

Black Onyx

A solid jet-black chalcedony, usually a dyed and treated agate, prized for sleek polished beads, cabochons, and intaglios.

gemstone
Albite

Albite

The sodium end-member of the plagioclase feldspar series, a common white rock-forming mineral and parent of peristerite moonstone.

mineral
Tiger's Eye

Tiger's Eye

A golden-brown chatoyant quartz with a shimmering silky band of light, formed when quartz replaces fibrous crocidolite.

gemstone

Nordmarkite

A light-colored alkali quartz syenite dominated by perthitic feldspar with minor quartz, from the Oslo igneous province of Norway.

igneous

Flame Obsidian

Black volcanic glass that flashes flame-like bands of iridescent color when light strikes aligned nanoscale inclusions.

igneous