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.

Unakite Jasper

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
Mint Garnet

Mint Garnet

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

gemstone
Graphite Schist

Graphite Schist

A dark, foliated schist rich in graphite that leaves a grey-black mark and forms from metamorphosed carbon-rich sediments.

metamorphic
Merelani Mint Garnet

Merelani Mint Garnet

A delicate vanadium-colored mint-green grossular garnet from the Merelani Hills of Tanzania, the source of tanzanite.

gemstone
Garnet Schist

Garnet Schist

A shiny, foliated schist studded with red garnet crystals that grew during medium-grade regional metamorphism.

metamorphic
Gondite

Gondite

A metamorphic rock made chiefly of manganese-rich spessartine garnet and quartz, formed from ancient manganese-bearing sediments.

metamorphic
Chrome Tourmaline

Chrome Tourmaline

An intensely green tourmaline colored by chromium and vanadium, prized for its vivid emerald-like color from East Africa.

gemstone
Chrome Diopside

Chrome Diopside

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

gemstone
Blue Beryl

Blue Beryl

The blue color variety of beryl, ranging from pale sky tones to rich sea-blue, best known in its finest grades as aquamarine.

gemstone
Paraiba Tourmaline

Paraiba Tourmaline

An intensely glowing copper-bearing tourmaline famed for its electric neon blue-green color and extreme rarity and value.

gemstone
Sonoran Sunset Jasper

Sonoran Sunset Jasper

A vivid copper-bearing Mexican stone of red cuprite and green chrysocolla that evokes a desert sunset.

mineral
Andesine-Labradorite

Andesine-Labradorite

An intermediate plagioclase feldspar spanning andesine and labradorite, marketed as a red-to-green gem, much of which is copper-diffusion treated.

gemstone
Gem Silica

Gem Silica

A rare, intensely blue chalcedony colored by copper-rich chrysocolla, prized as the most valuable of the blue chalcedonies.

gemstone
Unakite

Unakite

An altered granite mottled pink and green from feldspar and epidote, popular as a tough, colorful ornamental rock.

metamorphic
Emerald in Matrix

Emerald in Matrix

Natural emerald crystals still embedded in their host rock, prized as mineral specimens that show how the gem grew in place.

gemstone
Indicolite

Indicolite

The blue variety of tourmaline, a relatively rare and prized color ranging from teal and greenish blue to deep indigo.

gemstone
Frog Skin Jasper

Frog Skin Jasper

A mottled green jasper whose blotchy spotting resembles frog skin, valued by lapidaries for its earthy, camouflage-like patterns.

gemstone
Bamboo Agate

Bamboo Agate

An agate whose layered, segmented banding resembles the jointed stalks and leaves of bamboo.

gemstone
Rainforest Jasper

Rainforest Jasper

An Australian green rhyolite with eye-like orbs and earthy patterns marketed as jasper, evoking dense rainforest foliage.

igneous
Dragon Blood Jasper

Dragon Blood Jasper

A green-and-red ornamental stone of epidote and red piemontite or iron oxide, named for its dragon-skin coloring; not a true jasper.

metamorphic
Bloodstone Jasper

Bloodstone Jasper

A dark green jasper-chalcedony speckled with red iron-oxide spots, classically known as bloodstone or heliotrope.

mineral
Blue Tourmaline

Blue Tourmaline

Tourmaline in blue tones, encompassing iron-colored indicolite and the rare neon copper-bearing Paraiba, among the scarcer tourmaline colors.

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
Hydrogrossular Garnet

Hydrogrossular Garnet

A water-bearing massive grossular garnet, usually green or pink, widely used as a tough jade-like carving stone.

gemstone