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.

Grossular Garnet

Grossular Garnet

The calcium-aluminum garnet species spanning green tsavorite, cinnamon hessonite, and colorless leuco garnet — one of the most varied garnets.

gemstone
Microcline

Microcline

A common potassium feldspar identical in composition to orthoclase but more ordered, famous for its green gem variety amazonite.

mineral
Nephrite

Nephrite

One of the two jade minerals, an amphibole prized for its extreme toughness and soft, waxy green hues used in carving for millennia.

gemstone
Mariposite

Mariposite

A green, gold-associated metamorphic rock made of chrome-rich mica and quartz, named for Mariposa County in California's gold country.

metamorphic
Spherulitic Obsidian

Spherulitic Obsidian

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

igneous
Dalmatian Stone

Dalmatian Stone

A cream-colored feldspar-and-quartz rock peppered with dark spots, named for its resemblance to a Dalmatian dog.

igneous

Star Moonstone

A rare moonstone that shows a four-rayed star of light (asterism) across its domed surface along with adularescence.

gemstone

Sonoran Sunset Jasper

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

mineral

Reptile Jasper

A green-and-black mottled jasper whose scale-like patterning resembles reptile skin, often linked to Kambaba and crocodile jaspers.

mineral
Garden Quartz

Garden Quartz

Clear quartz filled with mineral inclusions that look like underwater gardens, mossy landscapes, or floating scenery.

crystal
Cherry Creek Jasper

Cherry Creek Jasper

A landscape-patterned Chinese jasper prized for warm cherry-red, cream, and green bands resembling painted scenery.

mineral

Willow Creek Jasper

A prized Idaho jasper known for porcelain-smooth pastel pinks, creams, and greens in soft swirling, orbicular patterns.

mineral

Exotica Jasper

Also called Sci-Fi Jasper, a Mexican jasper-rhyolite with swirling abstract patterns in cream, tan, gray, pink, and green.

gemstone
Copper-Bearing Tourmaline

Copper-Bearing Tourmaline

Tourmaline colored by copper, producing the famous vivid neon blues, greens and teals known commercially as Paraiba-type gems.

gemstone
Porphyritic Obsidian

Porphyritic Obsidian

Natural volcanic glass speckled with embedded mineral crystals (phenocrysts) such as feldspar or cristobalite that grew before the lava chilled.

igneous

Kiwi Jasper

A speckled green-and-black stone resembling kiwi fruit, technically a quartz-amazonite aggregate rather than true jasper.

mineral
Paraiba Tourmaline

Paraiba Tourmaline

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

gemstone

Bekily Garnet

A rare color-change garnet from Bekily, Madagascar, shifting from bluish-green in daylight to purplish-red under warm light, including the famed blue garnets.

gemstone
Serpentine

Serpentine

A group of green magnesium silicate minerals with a smooth, waxy feel, often carved and sometimes sold as imitation jade.

mineral
Kyanite Schist

Kyanite Schist

A mica schist containing bladed blue kyanite crystals, a marker of medium- to high-grade metamorphism of aluminous rocks.

metamorphic
Golden Healer Quartz

Golden Healer Quartz

Quartz colored or coated by golden iron oxides such as limonite or goethite, giving a warm sunlit yellow glow.

crystal

Outback Jasper

An earthy Australian-style jasper in red, ochre, and yellow tones evoking the colors of the Outback desert.

mineral
Owyhee Jasper

Owyhee Jasper

A picture jasper from the Owyhee region of Oregon and Idaho, prized for scenic tan, cream, and blue-grey landscape patterns.

mineral

Autumn Jasper

A warm-toned jasper named for its autumn-leaf palette of browns, rust, gold, and cream, popular as soothing earth-tone beads.

mineral