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.

Chrome Tourmaline

Chrome Tourmaline

An intensely green tourmaline colored by chromium and vanadium, prized for its vivid emerald-like color from East Africa.

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

Particolored Tourmaline

A tourmaline displaying two or more distinct colors in a single crystal, prized for natural color zoning like watermelon and bicolor stones.

gemstone
Felsite

Felsite

A general term for light-colored, fine-grained volcanic rocks rich in quartz and feldspar, like rhyolite.

igneous
Purple-Pink Tourmaline

Purple-Pink Tourmaline

Elbaite tourmaline in purplish-pink to magenta hues, colored by manganese, prized for its vivid orchid-like tones.

gemstone
Strawberry Quartz

Strawberry Quartz

A pink-to-red quartz colored by iron oxide inclusions that create a speckled, strawberry-like appearance within clear crystal.

crystal
Strawberry Garnet

Strawberry Garnet

A bright strawberry-red garnet, typically an almandine-pyrope blend prized for its juicy, lively red color in jewelry.

gemstone
Dumortierite Quartz

Dumortierite Quartz

Quartz colored blue by inclusions of the mineral dumortierite, giving a denim-like blue ornamental stone harder than dumortierite alone.

gemstone

Milk Opal

An opaque to translucent milky-white common opal valued for its soft porcelain-like color rather than play-of-color.

gemstone
Metabasalt

Metabasalt

Basalt that has been metamorphosed, developing new minerals like chlorite, actinolite, and epidote that give it a greenish color.

metamorphic
Water Opal

Water Opal

A transparent, colorless opal that looks like water or jelly, sometimes flashing subtle play-of-color from within.

gemstone
Teal Tourmaline

Teal Tourmaline

A sought-after elbaite tourmaline in teal hues that blend blue and green, prized for its ocean-like color.

gemstone
Trapiche Tourmaline

Trapiche Tourmaline

A rare tourmaline showing a fixed wheel-like pattern of color zones and arms radiating from the crystal's center.

gemstone

Aurora Obsidian

A trade name for rainbow-sheen obsidian whose aligned nanoparticles produce shifting aurora-like bands of color.

igneous
Peacock Opal

Peacock Opal

A precious opal showing dominant peacock-like blue, green and teal play-of-color, often on Ethiopian material.

gemstone

Ribbon Jasper

A banded jasper showing parallel ribbon-like stripes of contrasting color formed by layered silica and mineral deposition.

mineral
Jelly Opal

Jelly Opal

A translucent, gelatinous-looking opal whose transparency gives floating, glowing play-of-color a watery, jelly-like appearance.

gemstone

Flame Obsidian

Black volcanic glass that flashes flame-like bands of iridescent color when light strikes aligned nanoscale inclusions.

igneous

Lace Obsidian

Black volcanic glass laced with delicate web-like veins of contrasting color, formed by flow banding and fine crystallization.

igneous
Cognac Tourmaline

Cognac Tourmaline

A warm cognac-brown to reddish-brown tourmaline, typically magnesium-rich dravite, prized for its rich whisky-like color.

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
Larimar

Larimar

A rare sky-blue variety of pectolite found only in the Dominican Republic, prized for its sea-like color and white volcanic patterning.

gemstone
Rubellite

Rubellite

The red to raspberry-pink variety of tourmaline, prized for its vivid ruby-like color that holds under both daylight and artificial light.

gemstone

Grape Garnet

A trademarked deep purple-red rhodolite garnet from India, named for its rich grape-like color from the pyrope-almandine series.

gemstone