Rock & Mineral Encyclopedia

Search and identify 1,000+ rocks, minerals, crystals, and gemstones — with properties, formation, colors, hardness, and how to tell them apart.

Syrian Garnet

Syrian Garnet is an old trade name for fine deep-red almandine, historically tied to the Syriam region and prized as 'precious garnet.'

The principal iron ore, a heavy iron oxide ranging from metallic silver-gray to earthy red, always leaving a tell-tale red-brown streak.

A bright red mercury sulfide, the chief ore of mercury and the historic source of the pigment vermilion.

An altered granite of pink feldspar, green epidote and quartz, mottled pink-and-green and popular as a tumbled and carving stone.

A prized Mexican jasper known for pastel green, lavender, and cream orbicular patterns that take an exceptional polish.

A gray-brown jasper whose mottled, wrinkled patterning resembles elephant hide, also sold as Miriam or calligraphy stone.

A prized Idaho picture jasper from Bruneau Canyon known for brown and cream orbicular egg-rock patterns and scenic landscapes.

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

Clear or smoky quartz threaded with golden to reddish needles of rutile, also poetically called Venus hair stone.

A reddish-brown rare-earth phosphate that is a primary ore of cerium, thorium and other rare-earth elements, often found in placer sands.

Pyralspite is the aluminum garnet series uniting pyrope, almandine, and spessartine, covering most red, orange, and purple gem garnets.

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