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.

Petrified Wood

Petrified Wood

Ancient wood whose organic tissue has been replaced by silica, preserving the grain, rings, and structure of the original tree in stone.

sedimentary

Flame Opal

A glowing orange-to-red opal whose warm body color resembles flame; some stones add flashes of play-of-color.

gemstone
Orange Opal

Orange Opal

A vivid orange opal, classically Mexican fire opal, prized for its bright, fiery body color that glows when backlit.

gemstone
Pinfire Opal

Pinfire Opal

A precious opal pattern made of tiny, densely packed pinpoint flashes of play-of-color, like sparkling speckles across the stone.

gemstone

Girasol Opal

A transparent to milky opal that displays a soft bluish-white internal glow or sheen that seems to follow the light source.

gemstone
Lemon Opal

Lemon Opal

A bright lemon-yellow opal, usually common opal, valued for its cheerful citrus color and translucent glow.

gemstone

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
Flame Agate

Flame Agate

A chalcedony agate with red, orange, and yellow plume or banding patterns that rise like dancing flames within the stone.

gemstone

Flame Jasper

A fiery jasper whose red, orange, and yellow plumes lick across the stone like flames against an earthy background.

mineral
Cherry Opal

Cherry Opal

A translucent red opal, closely related to Mexican fire opal, glowing with a warm cherry-red body color often free of play-of-color.

gemstone
Flint

Flint

A hard, dark variety of chert that knaps into razor-sharp edges and sparks against steel, central to Stone Age technology.

sedimentary
Harlequin Opal

Harlequin Opal

The rarest and most coveted opal play-of-color pattern, showing large, evenly spaced, angular mosaic patches of color.

gemstone
Spencer Opal

Spencer Opal

Precious opal from Spencer, Idaho, occurring in thin colorful seams that are typically cut into triplets.

gemstone

Sunset Tourmaline

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

gemstone
Flash Opal

Flash Opal

A precious opal whose play-of-color appears as broad rolling flashes of spectral color that shift as the stone moves.

gemstone

Iridescent Obsidian

A black volcanic glass that displays shifting rainbow or metallic sheen from microscopic nanoparticle layers trapped inside.

igneous
Rainbow Opal

Rainbow Opal

Precious opal that displays a broad, vivid sweep of spectral colors, flashing the full rainbow as it is tilted in the light.

gemstone
Welo Opal

Welo Opal

Bright play-of-color opal from the Wollo Province of Ethiopia, mostly hydrophane and known for broad, vivid fire.

gemstone
Opal

Opal

A hydrated silica gemstone famous for its shimmering play-of-color, ranging from white and black opal to fiery orange fire opal.

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
Red Garnet

Red Garnet

The classic deep-red garnet — usually almandine or pyrope — long worn as the fiery 'carbuncle' gem and January's birthstone.

gemstone
Pyrope Garnet

Pyrope Garnet

The magnesium-rich garnet famed for its intense blood-red 'fire,' historically the Bohemian garnet of Victorian jewelry.

gemstone
Iris Agate

Iris Agate

A banded agate that diffracts transmitted light into rainbow colors when cut thin and backlit, producing a spectacular iridescence.

gemstone
Nevada Opal

Nevada Opal

Opal mined in Nevada, famous for fiery black precious opal and opalized wood from the Virgin Valley district.

gemstone