Rock & Mineral Encyclopedia

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

Skarn

A calc-silicate rock formed by chemical exchange between magma and carbonate rock, often rich in garnet and economically important ore minerals.

The colorless to milky-white variety of beryl, known mineralogically as goshenite and once used to imitate diamond and other gems.

Transparent, colorless beryl (goshenite), the pure form of the species valued for its clarity, hardness, and well-formed crystals.

A clean, mature sandstone made almost entirely of quartz grains, representing extreme weathering, sorting, and recycling of sediment.

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

The pure colorless variety of beryl, valued as crystal specimens and as a brilliant alternative to clearer gemstones.

The pure golden-yellow gem variety of beryl, colored by iron and valued for its clarity, brilliance, and durability.

The vivid, pure yellow tourmaline marketed as canary, a rare manganese-rich variety from Zambia and Malawi.

The pure, colorless form of crystalline quartz, valued for its clarity, abundance, and piezoelectric properties used in electronics.

The hardest known natural material, a crystalline form of pure carbon prized as the ultimate gemstone for its brilliance and fire.

An unusually pure, transparent-to-translucent obsidian with few inclusions; truly water-clear specimens are rare in nature.

A pure, translucent white marble from the Greek island of Paros, the preferred stone of ancient sculptors for its waxy glow.

The intensely glowing orange variety of spessartine garnet, prized for its pure 'Fanta-orange' fire and high brilliance.