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.

Gary Green Jasper

An Oregon jasper, also called larsonite, of silicified fossil wood showing olive-green fields laced with black dendritic patterns.

mineral
Bloodstone

Bloodstone

A dark green chalcedony speckled with blood-red spots of iron oxide, traditionally known as heliotrope.

gemstone
Bloodstone Jasper

Bloodstone Jasper

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

mineral
Brandberg Amethyst

Brandberg Amethyst

A prized Namibian quartz combining amethyst, smoky, and clear quartz in single crystals, often with phantoms and enhydros.

crystal
Spherulitic Obsidian

Spherulitic Obsidian

Obsidian containing spherulites — small radiating spheres of feldspar and cristobalite that crystallized within the cooling volcanic glass.

igneous
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
Star Garnet

Star Garnet

A rare almandine garnet that displays a four- or six-rayed star (asterism) from oriented rutile inclusions; the state gem of Idaho.

gemstone

Gold Sheen Obsidian

A black obsidian displaying a golden metallic sheen caused by light reflecting off aligned microscopic gas bubbles or mineral inclusions.

igneous

Peanut Obsidian

Black volcanic glass studded with oval, peanut-shaped grey-white spherulites of radiating crystals frozen in the glass.

igneous

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
Calc-schist

Calc-schist

A foliated metamorphic rock of calcite mixed with mica, quartz, and calc-silicate minerals, derived from marly sediments.

metamorphic
Siltstone

Siltstone

A fine-grained clastic rock of silt-sized grains, intermediate between sandstone and mudstone, with a gritty feel.

sedimentary

Cobra Jasper

A banded jasper with cream, tan, and brown layers resembling snakeskin, often sourced from Madagascar.

mineral

Silver Leaf Jasper

A gray-toned jasper with swirling cream, black, and brown leaf-like patterns, sometimes with druzy or agate pockets.

mineral
Poppy Jasper

Poppy Jasper

An orbicular jasper with red and orange flower-like spots resembling poppies, famously from Morgan Hill, California.

mineral

Pulaskite

A coarse-grained alkali syenite of perthitic feldspar with sodic pyroxene or amphibole and minor nepheline, from Pulaski County, Arkansas.

igneous

Starburst Agate

Agate containing radiating sprays of mineral needles that fan out like bursting stars within the chalcedony.

gemstone

Bird's Eye Jasper

A microcrystalline quartz jasper marked by small concentric ring or eye patterns that resemble the eyes of birds.

mineral
Shonkinite

Shonkinite

A dark, mafic potassic alkaline rock rich in augite with alkali feldspar and often nepheline, classically forming the base of layered sills.

igneous

Noreena Jasper

A rare Australian jasper from the Pilbara with bold red, yellow, and black abstract patterns, prized by collectors.

mineral

Cloud Agate

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

gemstone

Sunset Agate

A warmly colored chalcedony agate with reds, oranges, golds, and pinks that blend like the glowing bands of a sunset sky.

gemstone
Brecciated Jasper

Brecciated Jasper

A jasper made of angular fragments naturally cemented back together, typically showing red and brown pieces in a quartz matrix.

sedimentary
Kersantite

Kersantite

A dark mica lamprophyre with biotite and augite phenocrysts in a plagioclase-dominated groundmass, the feldspar counterpart of minette.

igneous