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.

Blue-Green Tourmaline

Blue-Green Tourmaline

Elbaite tourmaline spanning the blue-to-green range, from sea-green to deep peacock hues, popular for its versatile color.

gemstone
Mint Green Tourmaline

Mint Green Tourmaline

A soft, refreshing mint-to-seafoam green elbaite tourmaline, lightly colored by iron and prized for clarity and a cool, airy hue.

gemstone
Lime Green Tourmaline

Lime Green Tourmaline

A bright, fresh lime to yellowish-green elbaite tourmaline (verdelite), colored by iron and trace manganese for a lively spring-green tone.

gemstone

Green Sheen Obsidian

Black volcanic glass that flashes a green sheen at certain angles due to light interference off aligned microscopic inclusions.

igneous

Emerald Green Obsidian

A bright emerald-green glass sold as obsidian; saturated transparent green is manufactured, while rare natural green obsidian is only faintly tinted.

igneous
Yellow-Green Obsidian

Yellow-Green Obsidian

A chartreuse yellow-green glass sold as obsidian; the bright color is manufactured and does not occur in natural volcanic glass.

igneous
Neon Green Tourmaline

Neon Green Tourmaline

An intensely glowing green tourmaline, often copper-bearing, whose electric, almost luminous color recalls paraiba tourmaline.

gemstone
Dark Green Tourmaline

Dark Green Tourmaline

Deeply saturated green tourmaline colored by iron, often so dark it appears nearly black until viewed in bright light.

gemstone

Gondite

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

metamorphic
Emerald Green Tourmaline

Emerald Green Tourmaline

A richly saturated green variety of elbaite tourmaline whose color rivals emerald, colored by trace iron, chromium, or vanadium.

gemstone
Forest Green Tourmaline

Forest Green Tourmaline

A deep, rich forest-green elbaite tourmaline (verdelite) colored mainly by iron, with strong pleochroism and excellent durability.

gemstone
Cat's Eye Green Tourmaline

Cat's Eye Green Tourmaline

Green tourmaline cut as a cabochon to show a sharp moving band of light (chatoyancy) caused by fine parallel inclusions.

gemstone
Chrysocolla

Chrysocolla

A vivid blue-green hydrated copper silicate, soft on its own but prized as a gem when hardened by intergrown quartz or chalcedony.

mineral
Jaspillite

Jaspillite

A banded, metamorphosed iron formation in which bright red jasper alternates with silvery hematite or magnetite layers.

metamorphic
Ruby in Zoisite

Ruby in Zoisite

A striking rock of green zoisite studded with red-pink ruby crystals and black hornblende, also called anyolite.

metamorphic
Tree Agate

Tree Agate

A white chalcedony filled with green or black dendritic, tree-like mineral inclusions that resemble ferns or moss frozen in stone.

gemstone
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
Prehnite

Prehnite

A translucent yellow-green silicate famous for its botryoidal 'grape' clusters, often hosting needle-like sprays of black epidote.

mineral

Riband Agate

A banded chalcedony with straight, ribbon-like parallel layers, often cut across the bands for striking striped cabochons.

gemstone
Kyanite Schist

Kyanite Schist

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

metamorphic
Latite

Latite

The fine-grained volcanic equivalent of monzonite, an intermediate lava with nearly equal feldspars and little free quartz.

igneous
Tourmaline Schist

Tourmaline Schist

A foliated schist threaded with black tourmaline (schorl) needles, marking boron-rich metamorphic or metasomatic conditions.

metamorphic

Nordmarkite

A light-colored alkali quartz syenite dominated by perthitic feldspar with minor quartz, from the Oslo igneous province of Norway.

igneous
Moldavite

Moldavite

A rare forest-green natural glass formed by a meteorite impact about 15 million years ago, found mainly in the Czech Republic.

gemstone