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.

Regency Rose Agate

A prized plume agate with rose-pink and red feathery inclusions suspended in clear chalcedony, from the western U.S.

gemstone

Woodward Ranch Agate

Plume and fortification agate from the famous Woodward Ranch near Alpine, Texas, known for red and pink plumes.

gemstone
Flint

Flint

A hard, dark variety of chert that knaps into razor-sharp edges and sparks against steel, central to Stone Age technology.

sedimentary
Metasandstone

Metasandstone

Sandstone altered by metamorphism, with partly recrystallized quartz grains, transitional between true sandstone and quartzite.

metamorphic
Queensland Agate

Queensland Agate

Banded agate from Queensland, Australia, including the famous Agate Creek field, known for vivid fortification patterns.

gemstone

Sard

A brownish-red to deep brown variety of chalcedony, closely related to carnelian but darker, colored by iron oxides.

mineral

Outlaw Jasper

A boldly patterned western jasper in browns, reds, and golds, prized by lapidaries for its dramatic scenic and brecciated figures.

gemstone
Madagascar Jasper

Madagascar Jasper

A broad family of vividly patterned jaspers from Madagascar, including orbicular and scenic varieties prized for colorful, eye-catching designs.

gemstone

Woodbine Jasper

An earthy-toned jasper with vine-like or scenic patterning, valued by lapidaries for warm browns, reds, and creams that polish to a smooth finish.

gemstone

Stone Canyon Jasper

A warm-toned brecciated jasper from central California known for swirling browns, golds, and creams broken by darker seams.

gemstone

Graveyard Point Agate

A celebrated plume agate from the Oregon-Idaho border, known for dramatic black, gold, and red plumes in clear chalcedony.

gemstone
Lotus Jasper

Lotus Jasper

A softly patterned jasper in cream, gray, and tan whose markings can suggest lotus petals, popular for calm, neutral-toned jewelry.

gemstone

Bahia Agate

A banded and plume agate from the Bahia state of Brazil, known for delicate dendritic and feathery inclusions.

gemstone
Seam Agate

Seam Agate

Agate that forms in flat cracks or veins of host rock rather than rounded nodules, producing straight, parallel banding.

gemstone
Color Change Garnet

Color Change Garnet

A rare garnet that dramatically shifts color from greenish in daylight to reddish under lamplight, rivaling alexandrite.

gemstone
Vorobyevite

Vorobyevite

An old name for cesium-rich, often pink beryl (related to morganite), named after Russian mineralogist Victor Vorobyev.

gemstone

Masasi Blue Garnet

Masasi Blue Garnet is a rare vanadium-bearing color-change garnet from Tanzania that appears blue-green by day and purplish-red indoors.

gemstone
Chrome Tourmaline

Chrome Tourmaline

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

gemstone
Stibnite

Stibnite

Stibnite is the chief ore of antimony, famous for its dramatic clusters of bladed, silvery-gray metallic crystals.

mineral
Aragonite

Aragonite

A calcium carbonate mineral and polymorph of calcite, aragonite forms distinctive needle clusters, sea shells, and pearls.

mineral
Indicolite

Indicolite

The blue variety of tourmaline, a relatively rare and prized color ranging from teal and greenish blue to deep indigo.

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
Shonkinite

Shonkinite

A dark, mafic potassic alkaline rock rich in augite with alkali feldspar and often nepheline, classically forming the base of layered sills.

igneous
Devitrified Obsidian

Devitrified Obsidian

Obsidian that has partly crystallized over time, growing pale spherulite clusters within the black glass, as in snowflake obsidian.

igneous