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.

Bronzite

Bronzite

An iron-rich orthopyroxene prized for its warm bronze schiller, a metallic-looking sheen created by tiny mineral inclusions.

mineral
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
Reptile Jasper

Reptile Jasper

A green-and-black mottled jasper whose scale-like patterning resembles reptile skin, often linked to Kambaba and crocodile jaspers.

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
Grape Garnet

Grape Garnet

A trademarked deep purple-red rhodolite garnet from India, named for its rich grape-like color from the pyrope-almandine series.

gemstone
Tube Agate

Tube Agate

A chalcedony agate containing hollow or mineral-filled tubes that appear as rods, circles, or pipes depending on the angle of the cut.

gemstone
Landscape Agate

Landscape Agate

A translucent chalcedony agate whose mineral inclusions form miniature scenes resembling mountains, trees, deserts, and skies.

gemstone
Khondalite

Khondalite

A high-grade metamorphic gneiss of garnet, sillimanite, quartz, and graphite, derived from ancient aluminous sediments.

metamorphic
Jasper

Jasper

An opaque, often colorfully patterned variety of chalcedony quartz, popular for tumbling, carving, and jewelry.

mineral
Lizard Skin Jasper

Lizard Skin Jasper

A patterned jasper whose scaly, net-like markings recall reptile skin, popular with lapidaries for its organic camouflage look.

gemstone
Frog Skin Jasper

Frog Skin Jasper

A mottled green jasper whose blotchy spotting resembles frog skin, valued by lapidaries for its earthy, camouflage-like patterns.

gemstone
Starburst Agate

Starburst Agate

Agate containing radiating sprays of mineral needles that fan out like bursting stars within the chalcedony.

gemstone
Paintbrush Agate

Paintbrush Agate

A plume agate whose inclusions form upright, bristly clusters resembling the strokes of a paintbrush.

gemstone
Owyhee Blue Jasper

Owyhee Blue Jasper

A soft blue-gray jasper from the Owyhee region of Oregon and Idaho, prized for its rare, calming blue tones among earthy jaspers.

gemstone
Kentucky Agate

Kentucky Agate

The official state rock of Kentucky, a banded agate famous for striking deep-red and black fortification patterns.

gemstone
Hells Canyon Jasper

Hells Canyon Jasper

A warm earth-toned jasper from the Hells Canyon region of the Oregon-Idaho border, prized for brecciated browns, reds, and creams.

gemstone
Holley Blue Agate

Holley Blue Agate

A rare translucent lavender-blue agate from the Holley area of Oregon, prized for its soft purple-blue color.

gemstone
Crowley Ridge Agate

Crowley Ridge Agate

Agate found in the gravels of Crowley's Ridge in northeastern Arkansas, a stream-transported banded chalcedony.

gemstone
Brecciated Agate

Brecciated Agate

Agate that was shattered and naturally re-cemented by silica, creating a mosaic of angular fragments in a quartz matrix.

gemstone
Blue Chalcedony

Blue Chalcedony

A translucent, soft blue variety of microcrystalline quartz whose color comes from light scattering through its fine structure.

mineral
Blue Line Jasper

Blue Line Jasper

A pale jasper crossed by distinctive blue-gray veins or lines, valued by lapidaries for its calm color contrast.

gemstone
Tachylite

Tachylite

An opaque, iron-rich basaltic volcanic glass formed by the rapid chilling of basalt lava, darker and denser than rhyolitic obsidian.

igneous
Polychrome Jasper

Polychrome Jasper

A warm earth-toned jasper from Madagascar in flowing reds, oranges and golds, also called desert jasper, discovered in the early 2000s.

gemstone
Kambaba Jasper

Kambaba Jasper

A dark green-and-black stromatolite jasper patterned with swirling orbs, formed from fossilized ancient microbial colonies.

sedimentary