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.

Bloodstone Jasper

Bloodstone Jasper

A dark green jasper-chalcedony speckled with red iron-oxide spots, classically known as bloodstone or heliotrope.

mineral
Cape Ruby

Cape Ruby

Cape Ruby is a deep red pyrope garnet from South African diamond deposits, prized as an affordable, fiery alternative to ruby.

gemstone
Chalcocite

Chalcocite

A dark gray copper sulfide that is one of the richest copper ores, prized by collectors when found as rare sharp crystals.

mineral
Raspberry Garnet

Raspberry Garnet

A vivid pinkish-red rhodolite garnet named for its raspberry color, a bright pyrope-almandine blend popular in jewelry.

gemstone
Rutile

Rutile

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

mineral
Sherry Tourmaline

Sherry Tourmaline

A warm sherry-brown to orange-brown tourmaline, usually magnesium-rich dravite, named for its rich fortified-wine color.

gemstone
Tangerine Quartz

Tangerine Quartz

Clear quartz coated with orange-red hematite, giving points a vivid tangerine color, mainly from Brazil.

crystal

Burgundy Tourmaline

A deep wine-red to maroon tourmaline colored by manganese, a rich darker-toned member of the red-pink rubellite family.

gemstone
Strawberry Garnet

Strawberry Garnet

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

gemstone
Bixbite

Bixbite

An old trade name for red beryl, the extremely rare manganese-colored beryl from Utah, now largely replaced by the term red beryl.

gemstone
Aventurine

Aventurine

A translucent quartz speckled with glittery mineral inclusions that produce a shimmering aventurescence, most often green.

crystal

Pipestone

A soft, fine-grained red metamorphosed claystone, sacred to many Native American peoples and carved into ceremonial pipes.

metamorphic

Strawberry Obsidian

A pink-red glass sold as obsidian, sometimes with metallic flecks; the strawberry color is manufactured rather than a natural volcanic glass tone.

igneous
Belomorite

Belomorite

A regional Russian name for a moonstone-like plagioclase from the White Sea coast, prized for its bluish, slightly iridescent schiller.

gemstone
Howlite

Howlite

A white, porous borate mineral webbed with gray-black veins, widely dyed to imitate turquoise and other stones.

mineral
Pezzottaite

Pezzottaite

A rare cesium-rich, beryl-related gem mineral with a raspberry-pink color, first found in Madagascar in 2002.

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
Tiger Iron

Tiger Iron

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

metamorphic
Sapphire

Sapphire

The gem variety of corundum in every color except red, most prized in velvety blue and exceptionally hard and durable.

gemstone
Mylonite

Mylonite

A fine-grained, strongly foliated rock formed deep in fault zones where rocks flowed and ground down rather than fracturing.

metamorphic
Garnet

Garnet

A group of silicate gemstones best known for deep red but spanning nearly every color, including green tsavorite and orange spessartine.

gemstone
Bloodstone

Bloodstone

A dark green chalcedony speckled with blood-red spots of iron oxide, traditionally known as heliotrope.

gemstone
Ocean Jasper

Ocean Jasper

A multicolored orbicular chalcedony from Madagascar famous for its circular eye-like orbs in greens, pinks, whites, and yellows.

sedimentary

Sonoran Sunset Jasper

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

mineral