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.

Yellow Garnet

Yellow Garnet

A trade term for yellow garnets, including golden grossular, yellow andradite (topazolite), and yellow-green Mali garnet.

gemstone
Topaz

Topaz

A hard, brilliant fluorosilicate gemstone occurring in many colors, from precious golden imperial topaz to popular blue topaz.

gemstone
Grandite Garnet

Grandite Garnet

Grandite is an intermediate garnet between grossular and andradite, common in skarns and prized for vivid green to golden crystals.

mineral
Andradite Garnet

Andradite Garnet

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

gemstone
Pele's Hair

Pele's Hair

Fine, golden, hair-like strands of basaltic volcanic glass spun from fluid lava droplets during eruptions, named for the Hawaiian volcano goddess.

igneous
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
Tiger Iron

Tiger Iron

A banded combination rock of golden tiger's eye, red jasper, and metallic hematite, formed in ancient iron deposits.

metamorphic
Rutile

Rutile

Rutile is a major titanium ore and the famous golden needle inclusion that gives rutilated quartz its shimmering threads.

mineral
Topazolite Garnet

Topazolite Garnet

A rare yellow to golden variety of andradite garnet, the topaz-colored cousin of green demantoid, prized for high dispersion and brilliance.

gemstone
Sodalite

Sodalite

A royal-blue feldspathoid mineral with white calcite veining, often confused with lapis lazuli but lacking its golden pyrite flecks.

mineral
Lapis Lazuli

Lapis Lazuli

An intensely blue metamorphic rock of lazurite flecked with golden pyrite, prized for millennia as a gemstone and ultramarine pigment.

metamorphic