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.

Blue Opal

Blue Opal

A soft blue common opal, famously from Peru, valued for its serene sky-to-teal color rather than play-of-color.

gemstone
Septarian Concretion

Septarian Concretion

A rounded sedimentary nodule cracked internally and filled with veins of yellow calcite, prized for its striking dragon-skin patterning.

sedimentary
Porcelanite

Porcelanite

A hard, fine-grained siliceous rock with a dull porcelain-like texture, intermediate between soft diatomite and dense chert.

sedimentary
Pietersite

Pietersite

A brecciated, chatoyant quartz with swirling blue, gold, and brown fibers that shimmer like a stormy sky.

gemstone
Plum Tourmaline

Plum Tourmaline

A purplish, plum-toned elbaite tourmaline colored by manganese, blending the red of rubellite with violet-blue undertones.

gemstone
Rhodolite Garnet

Rhodolite Garnet

A purplish-red to raspberry garnet that is a natural blend of pyrope and almandine, prized for its bright rose-violet color.

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

Calico Obsidian

A mottled, multicolored obsidian blending black, brown, grey, and tan patches like a calico cat's patchwork coat.

igneous
Rhodochrosite

Rhodochrosite

Rhodochrosite is a rose-pink manganese carbonate prized for raspberry-red crystals and banded pink-and-white gem material.

gemstone
Red Obsidian

Red Obsidian

Volcanic glass tinted red by fine iron-oxide inclusions, often blended with black to form mahogany-patterned obsidian.

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
Mali Garnet

Mali Garnet

A rare grossular-andradite blend ('grandite') from Mali, prized for its high brilliance and golden-green to yellow color.

gemstone

Amegreen

A natural bicolor quartz blending amethyst purple with prasiolite green in a single crystal, prized as a metaphysical heart-crown stone.

crystal
Peach Garnet

Peach Garnet

A soft peach to pinkish-orange garnet, usually a malaia-type pyrope-spessartine blend prized for its warm, delicate color.

gemstone
Champagne Garnet

Champagne Garnet

A soft brownish-golden garnet named for its champagne color, usually a malaia-type pyrope-spessartine blend prized for warm, neutral tones.

gemstone
Smithsonite

Smithsonite

Smithsonite is a zinc carbonate ore famous for glassy botryoidal crusts in blue-green, pink, and yellow hues.

mineral
Feldspathic Sandstone

Feldspathic Sandstone

A feldspar-rich sandstone, often pink, that points to granitic source rocks eroded quickly in dry or cold climates.

sedimentary
Hydrogrossular Garnet

Hydrogrossular Garnet

A water-bearing massive grossular garnet, usually green or pink, widely used as a tough jade-like carving stone.

gemstone
Arkose

Arkose

A coarse, feldspar-rich sandstone, often pink, that records rapid erosion of granitic source rock under arid conditions.

sedimentary
Bi-color Beryl

Bi-color Beryl

A single beryl crystal showing two distinct color zones, such as aquamarine blue grading into morganite pink, within one stone.

gemstone
Erythrite

Erythrite

A soft pink to crimson hydrated cobalt arsenate, famous as cobalt bloom that signals nearby cobalt ores.

mineral
Transvaal Jade

Transvaal Jade

A massive green-to-pink hydrogrossular garnet from South Africa used as a jade simulant, not a true jade.

gemstone
Rosterite

Rosterite

An old varietal name for alkali- and cesium-rich beryl, typically colorless to pale pink, overlapping with vorobyevite and morganite.

gemstone
Ruby in Zoisite

Ruby in Zoisite

A striking rock of green zoisite studded with red-pink ruby crystals and black hornblende, also called anyolite.

metamorphic