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 Lace Agate

Blue Lace Agate

A soft sky-blue banded chalcedony prized for its delicate, lace-like white and blue swirling patterns.

gemstone
Pyroxenite

Pyroxenite

A dense, dark ultramafic plutonic rock composed almost entirely of pyroxene minerals, often associated with peridotite and layered intrusions.

igneous
Peridotite

Peridotite

A dense, coarse-grained ultramafic rock rich in olivine that makes up most of the Earth's upper mantle.

igneous
Strawberry Quartz

Strawberry Quartz

A pink-to-red quartz colored by iron oxide inclusions that create a speckled, strawberry-like appearance within clear crystal.

crystal
Greensand

Greensand

A green, glauconite-rich marine sandstone that records slow deposition on continental shelves and is used as a soil amendment.

sedimentary
Blue Goldstone

Blue Goldstone

A man-made glittering glass colored deep blue with cobalt and studded with tiny copper crystals that mimic a starry night sky.

gemstone
Starburst Agate

Starburst Agate

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

gemstone
Aurora Obsidian

Aurora Obsidian

A trade name for rainbow-sheen obsidian whose aligned nanoparticles produce shifting aurora-like bands of color.

igneous
Alkali Feldspar

Alkali Feldspar

The feldspar solid-solution series between potassium feldspar and albite, a major rock-forming group spanning orthoclase, microcline, sanidine, and anorthoclase.

mineral
Sesame Jasper

Sesame Jasper

A finely speckled pale jasper trade stone named for its sesame-seed-like flecks, closely related to Kiwi Jasper.

mineral
Idaho Star Garnet

Idaho Star Garnet

Idaho's official state gem: a dark almandine garnet showing a four- or rare six-rayed star from oriented rutile inclusions.

gemstone
Super Seven

Super Seven

A trade name for quartz containing a combination of seven minerals including amethyst, smoky quartz, and cacoxenite, prized by collectors.

crystal
Granodiorite

Granodiorite

A common coarse-grained intrusive rock like granite but richer in plagioclase than potassium feldspar.

igneous
Troctolite

Troctolite

A mafic plutonic rock of plagioclase and olivine whose mottled appearance earned it the nickname 'troutstone'.

igneous
Mariposite

Mariposite

A green, gold-associated metamorphic rock made of chrome-rich mica and quartz, named for Mariposa County in California's gold country.

metamorphic
Star Garnet

Star Garnet

A rare almandine garnet that displays a four- or six-rayed star (asterism) from oriented rutile inclusions; the state gem of Idaho.

gemstone
Paragonite Schist

Paragonite Schist

A pale, silvery schist dominated by paragonite, the sodium-rich white mica, formed in aluminous metamorphic rocks.

metamorphic
Turritella Agate

Turritella Agate

A brown fossiliferous chalcedony packed with spiral freshwater snail shells, technically agatized fossil rock from Wyoming.

sedimentary
Owyhee Blue Agate

Owyhee Blue Agate

A soft sky-blue chalcedony from the Owyhee region of Oregon and Idaho, prized for its calming, opaque powder-blue color.

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
Bloodstone

Bloodstone

A dark green chalcedony speckled with blood-red spots of iron oxide, traditionally known as heliotrope.

gemstone
Albite

Albite

The sodium end-member of the plagioclase feldspar series, a common white rock-forming mineral and parent of peristerite moonstone.

mineral
Pegmatite

Pegmatite

An exceptionally coarse-grained igneous rock, often granitic, famous for hosting large crystals and many gemstones.

igneous
Norite

Norite

A coarse-grained mafic plutonic rock similar to gabbro but with orthopyroxene as the dominant pyroxene instead of clinopyroxene.

igneous